Life after the Heroics
by Blackwal
Summary: Ten years had passed since the Fall of Beacon and while the world had been saved by no small effort made by his friends and himself Jaune feels lost in the new world. He wanted to be a Huntsman to help those in need and while he still found his career satisfying he knew something was missing from his life.
1. Chapter 1

Ten years had passed since the Fall of Beacon and while the world had been saved by no small effort made by his friends and himself Jaune feels lost in the new world. He wanted to be a Huntsman to help those in need and while he still found his career satisfying he knew something was missing from his life.

* * *

Jaune's eye's opened to the familiar sight of his bedroom ceiling, boring white paint and a single light fixture in the center. With a casual roll, he reached for his alarm clock and turned off the alarm before it had a chance to activate and jar him from his more relaxed awakening.

He wasn't sure why he even bothered with the alarm clock anymore it had been years since he actually needed it, always waking up minutes before it activated and turning it off before it could do anything, setting it back on his dresser he pulled himself from his bed and entered the adjacent bathroom quickly going through his morning routine, teeth brushed, shower, and still trying with futility to organize his hair into something that looked intentional.

After ten minutes of trying and failing with his hair like every morning, he gave up and got dressed before heading to what passed for a kitchen in his tiny apartment, pulling out an assortment of cookware and ingredients he set himself to begin preparing breakfast for the day while casually turning on the morning news.

"It's sound's like we will be having another beautiful day here in Vale, Sunny with without a cloud in the sky, temperatures expecting to reach a record high today so if you are working outside be prepared for a hot day. Next up is market news and for the now the eighth consecutive month the Schnee Dust Company stock prices have hit a new record low. While at the same time Remnant Free Trade Dust Corporation stock has been climbing steadily week after week."

He smiled at the news report glad to hear that the SDC was still taking a solid beating and would likely never recover. Weiss and Blake had come together to end the company. Weiss had tried for many years to try and achieve that from the inside but after so many years she knew the task was useless and came up with another way.

He still remembered the day the lawsuits had started, Weiss had gathered a huge amount of evidence on her families company and with the help of Blake had spread it around to everyone who had a legitimate grudge with the company.

That was four years ago and for a very long time Jacque Schnee had been able to suppress the lawsuits and keep his company running smoothly but gradually cracks began to form and the news got out, the Schnee company name had been dragged through the mud many times through its existence but this time it had been truly damning and the company began to spiral out of control, few if any knew the mastermind behind the downfall was Weiss Schnee and fewer knew still that she was also the head of the newly formed RFTDC.

Finished with breakfast and with a quick cleaning of his dishes he donned his gear and stepped out of his small, out of the way apartment, and hit the streets of Vale making his way to the main Huntsman office to see what was available for work today, not entirely sure what he was looking for simply hoping something interesting would show up today, weeks of Grimm clean-up missions had left him desiring something a bit more substantial, not that he minded cleaning out Grimm Dens just that he wanted a change of pace.

He slowed his pace as he heard in the distance the roar of a familiar engine in the distance and knew it wouldn't be long before he had company. Stopping by the entrance to a parking garage he watched as the vehicle he recognized pull into the compound and moments later his fellow blonde appeared from inside.

"Morning Yang."

"Heya Jauney. How's life without me been treating you?"

"The twelve hours have passed much the same as the previous twelve hours and the same as the ones before that." He smiled to himself as he continued his walk to the Huntsman office his companion stepping in beside him.

"Think there will be anything interesting today, I think I have seen enough Beowulf and Ursa this past month to last a lifetime, and that coming from one of us means something, am I right?" Yang elbowed him in the side all smiles today.

The smiles made him wary of Yang, she wasn't and had never been a morning person, not really hitting her stride until around mid morning and the fact that she appeared happy and upbeat before then meant something was up he simply had to figure out what and how much it was going to upset his day. "Yeah I feel the same might just take it easy and sign up for wall duty for the week, take it easy." he discretely looked towards Yang seeing if she reacted to his idea of taking the most boring job a Huntsman could.

"Bleh, are you trying to commit suicide by boredom, I remember my last time in the rotation for the wall, that week felt like it lasted forever."

He rolled his eyes, Yang was prone to exaggerate things and while he might agree the wall was boring but it you planned for it it wasn't as bad as she and many others made it out to be. "You just need something to occupy your time up there. Something other than draining your Scrolls battery in record time." He cut off Yang's response that she used her scroll to pass the time.

"I'm hurt that you think the only way I know to pass time is to stare at my scroll, I know all kinds of ways to pass the time." Yang got in close to try and get a rise out of him but through years of dealing with her he didn't so much as budge at the innuendo, Yang had teased him for years and after enough time he was immune to the less subtle variations of it, he couldn't say he was never caught off guard but this was simply a morning routine at this point and had been ever since they had started working together.

He simply rolled his eye's, he had long since given up trying to find a satisfying response and instead simply moved onto the next topic. "So how long do you think it will be until Weiss comes forward as the head of the company that's rapidly killing her father's legacy?"

"You saw that report as well then I take it." Yang cradled her hands behind her head as she thought. "You know maybe never, Ren is good for a strong public image and he surprisingly has the charisma needed to pull off the act. Weiss might be popular but the Schnee name and global companies have a less than great track record."

"I suppose so, and Ren is doing a great job, Weiss definitely picked the right person for the job, imagine if she chose any of us for that."

"What is that supposed to mean. Yang Xiao Long could have done twice the job of Lie Ren, hell I could have done a better job than Weiss."

"Of course Yang, my mistake in forgetting that you were infallible." With a smile, he pushed open the door of the Huntsman Office and held it for Yang once inside they both made their way to a familiar desk bypassing a wall filled with the general request's, both hoping that there would be something greater to do today.

Finding the desk was easy even from across the room, Neptune's distinctive Blue hair made him easily visible from anywhere in the room and both blondes approached his desk and claimed the empty seats in front of it.

"Jaune, Yang, how are two of my favorite blondes doing today."

"I'm doing wonderfully and Jaune's being boring, as usual." Yang said with a wry smile.

"So nothing really new then." Neptune smiled back, his less wry and more openly joking.

"Got anything good today Blue Boy?" Yang leaned forward trying to sneak a peek at Neptune's console screen hoping to find a juicy mission.

"Not really, everything is pretty mundane, got some requests for security for some of the new settlements." Neptune looked past his monitor, he was certain neither Blonde wanted a job like that and by the way they both shook their heads was right and quickly skipped forward. "What else, what else, oh I almost forgot about this one, a new security detail for a new Dust mine that's in the formation stages, the automated security is still a couple weeks from being fully online and they need a few Huntsmen in the mean time, RFTDC contract, pretty big money to be made." Neptune looked up again seeing if this one had garnered any more interest, both blondes had shown great interest in working cheap for the new dust company and this contract would mean a solid return on the jobs they worked for pretty much free at one point.

"How long is the contract for?"

"Uh... two to three weeks, basically enough time to setup the security system and test it out. Pay's a solid thousand Lien a day." Neptune knew he had both of them then and there, Jaune lived pretty much in a hole in a wall apartment constantly saving money for some reason and Yang was near perpetually broke.

"When does it start and how many spots does it have to fill?" Jaune asked his mind going over the practical aspects.

"Say's here a team of Four and you would be leaving this weekend so two days from now."

"Jaune and I will take the job." Yang decided for the both of them.

Neptune looked at Jaune and smiled when he nodded.

"Great I'll find two more for it and send the details to your Scroll's when the team is setup."

"Thank's Neptune. I'll see you in a couple days then Jaune." Yang stood from the desk and made her way from the building leaving Jaune behind, another normal occurrence.

"So whats the deal with the lucrative Contract, normally they get picked up immediately." Jaune stared at Neptune and watched as his feeble facade crumbled around himself, Neptune was a good friend to have but not a good one to keep a secret.

"Alright fine you got me, Sun's been having a bad run of luck recently and I pulled this contract off the public boards figuring he could use an easy job that paid well as well as give him some down time."

"Is he still having issue's, it's been almost eight years."

"Man, I know that, and trust me every member of SSSN has tried to help him or get him to do something or anything else but nothing has worked, he's hung up on Blake and I don't think that's ever going to change." Neptune slouched back in his chair.

"Might help if anyone besides the two of them knew the details on why they broke up to begin with. One day they were happily dating even rumor's of marriage and then the next Sun was back in Vacuo and Blake pretends like nothing was wrong. Eight years and I don't think I have seen the two even be in the same room together again." Jaune stood from the desk and stretched, his mind remembering the odd break up the two had and that neither of them talks about it. The topic actually had a fairly large wager on it about the reason why the two split up, the wager was probably going to be unresolved forever but the friends enjoyed talking about it from time to time. "Anyways so Sun's joining us do you have a fourth lined up yet or are you still looking?"

"Nothing yet, Scarlet's due back soon I was going to see if he was available. Why do you have any suggestions?"

"How about Coco? She hasn't been too busy since Velvet took that job teaching at Beacon I'm sure she would enjoy the work."

"That's not a bad idea, I'll ask Scarlet first and if he's not available I'll give Coco a call." Neptune turned to his console and was lost to his work immediately.

Jaune smiled as he excused himself, Neptune was a strange one, he had been the cool guy for so many years and now a lot of that was gone. He was one of the first from their generation that had stopped being a Huntsman and settled into a more civilian lifestyle, he still kept himself fit but a bit of a belly was beginning to form due to long days of sitting at a desk filing paperwork and helping the Hunter world run more smoothly than it had in years past.

Stepping out into the street the day was still in its beginning stages, regular business's had only just begun to open for the day.

"I guess Shopping is next, gonna need some extra gear and equipment if I'm going to be gone for three weeks." He turned down the street heading to a store that offered good deals to Huntsmen.

* * *

Blake watched he former partner weave her way through the cluster of tables and people before finally ending up occupying the chair across from herself all the while wearing an enormous grin. "What's got you so happy?"

"What I can't just simply be this happy to see you? You're barely around anymore, off saving the world one bigot at a time." Yang's lilac eyes danced playfully with the words her smile growing ever so slightly when Blake cracked a small grin herself and both women shared a small laugh. "If you must know, I just landed an easy job with a pretty big payoff, three weeks of camping at a thousand Lien a day."

"Okay, that's a pretty good reason to be smiling."

"I know right? Plus Jaune's coming so I don't have to even worry about cooking, it's gonna be a blast."

"You do know you could learn to cook right?"

"Sure I could but why bother when someone else is there to do it for me." Yang paused mentally basking in her life of ease before bringing herself back to the moment. "Enough about me, what brings you to Vale, you haven't left Menagerie in years aside from the times Ruby practically drags you to Vale for the reunions. Wait, is there a reunion happening right now that I forgot about?" Yang hastily pulled out her scroll intent on checking the date to see if she missed something.

"No Yang, I'm not here for a Reunion I'm actually done with the Fang and am moving here to Vale." Blake said this as calmly and nonchalant as possible not wanting to make a big deal of it.

"You... done with the Fang?" Yang's mind stalled, the sentence made no sense to her, for as long as she knew Blake her life had been tied to the Fang in one way or another. "How can you be done with the Fang, you are their de facto leader, how is that going to work?"

"It's quite simple actually, I promoted someone who deserved the position and then I left after making the announcement."

Yang stared at Blake in disbelief, Blake without the Fang was like her without her hair it just didn't make sense.

Blake watched as Yang's mind seemed to stall at the news and smiled to herself. "It really isn't that big a deal Yang, I haven't really done much for the organization in years, the last major thing was to help Weiss with her project and even that was handled more by others than myself. Right now just felt like the right time to step down."

"Alright, cool. I mean I still can't really wrap my head around it but that's not really important is it." Yang leaned back in her chair and picked up a coffee that had just arrived at the table. "SO, what are your plan's then, I mean aside from moving to Vale."

"Well, I actually plan to put my Huntsman training to practical use and kind of just see what life has in store for me."

"So you really have no idea what your doing do you?" Yang grinned ear to ear.

"Not a damn clue, but I had to get away from my Mother, It got so bad that I'm certain I would have woken up one day married with no recollection of how it had happened." Blake's Faunus ears twitched at the thought.

"I could see Kali doing that and being convincing enough even to get Ghira to help."

"And now you understand why I had to get away from there, my future depended on it."

"I don't know, your mother had a pretty good eye for men, I'm sure she would have set you up with someone nice, definitely nicer than anyone you will find in Vale, the Bachelor scene in this city is awful. The civilians are limp noodles and pretty much ever huntsman in our age group is spoken for." Yang slumped forward onto the table depressed at the thought of just how boring her social life had been recently.

"The situation can't be that bad."

"It probably wouldn't be if I was a normal Huntress but you will notice what I'm talking about eventually, damn Hero worship, bad enough with the civilians doing it but having Huntsmen treat you like your something untouchable losses its appeal quickly too, girl can't have a regular relationship because everyone in existence know's who we are."

"Well we did kind of save the world in a big way, the fact that some of us are managing to live relatively normal lives is surprising enough."

"Yeah normal, Weiss secretly runs a company that's running her father's into the ground, Ren is the public figurehead of the same company mostly because Weiss is afraid of the public image attached to her name, Nora, well Nora has a pretty normal life, Married to Ren and trying to reign in three children that luckily two of the three take after Ren in Personality." Yang took a drink from her coffee. "Then there is Ruby, Remnants sweetheart, trapped in a celebrity role she can't escape and wishing for nothing more than to be able to pull out Cresent Rose and lop off a few Grimm heads."

"Come on out of the four you just mentioned only two of those aren't normal for the people, Weiss was always going into Business the way it ended up might not be normal but still it is how Weiss would want to spend her life, and like you said Nora has her dream life and that's only strange because it's so normal. Also, don't think that I missed noticing you excluded the two of us and Jaune from your little comparisons to a normal life."

"I excluded myself cause I am living a normal life the only abnormal thing is I can't manage to get a date to satisfy me, your excluded because you are in between major parts of your life and Jaune well I really don't know whats up with Jaune." Yang paused for a moment deep in thought. "He doesn't do anything anymore, he lives in a tiny Apartment has no social life outside of work and spends next to no Lien, I mean like none."

"Maybe he's just saving up for something or just doesn't want to be a part of your social life, ever consider that?" Blake replied with a simple grin, she had missed these sort of conversations, she just didn't realize how much until now.

Yang sat quietly and stewed at that comment for a moment, far longer than Blake expected her too.

"Yang, I'm sorry that was insensitive."

"No, it's alright Blake I understand I'm not everyone's favorite person but I really feel like I should know more about Jaune at this point, we have been partners for almost four years now and I feel like I barely know anything about him aside from the things I learned ages ago."

"To be fair to your friend making skill's it is surprising that you haven't manage to break him yet, It took you less than a year to figure out most of my teenage bullshit not that it stopped me from making some stupid decisions still but that aside you are good at finding things out about other people even if your strategy isn't the most graceful at times." Blake grinned and was glad to see that Yang's mood appeared slightly improved. "Now let's get off these boring topics, you said you have a job coming up, when do you leave?"

"This weekends so I have a few days if your needing help with anything."

"Actually I'm am looking for one thing... I need a job."

"What do you mean you need a job? You moved her without having something lined up?"

"You do remember what I said earlier about my mother right?"

"Geez, okay so what do you have to work with right now?"

"Gambol Shroud, a couple hundred Lien and the clothes on my back." Blake responded sheepishly, embarrassed at her situation.

"Okay, I will call ahead to Neptune and reserve a spot on the job if there is still an open spot then we should head down to the offices and get you registered, the money will get you on your feet in no time and you can stay with me until the day we leave."

"Thanks, Yang I owe you one."

"Hey, think nothing of it, what are friends for anyways right!"

* * *

Neptune stared at the two women sitting across from him for a moment thinking his eyes were playing a trick on him. "Yang, what... what are you doing back so soon..."

"Well it's like I told you on the call, I found someone for the job," Yang motioned to Blake who Neptune looked at in fear, not of her but of something else. "And since she isn't setup in the system we needed to come down here and get her credentials in the system right away." Yang had noticed the panicked look in Neptunes eyes, it was hard to miss if she had been honest but she didn't understand it.

"Are... are you sure you want to go on this job Blake?" Neptune shifted in his chair uncomfortably under the now scrutinizing gazes of the two women. "I mean you just got to Vale, maybe take some time to relax, see the sights, that sort of thing." He could tell his words were wasted simply by their shared expression of scrutiny.

"He's not always like this now is he Yang?" Blake asked, never taking her eyes off Neptune.

"Not unless he adopted this trait in the past couple hours, no." Yang responded leaning threateningly across the desk. "Neptune," Yang's mechanical arm's fingers drummed heavily on the wooden piece of furniture. "why exactly do you not want Blake taking this job?" Lilac eyes glinted red for a fraction of a second just enough that Yang conveyed she wanted the real reason and not a hastily concocted lie.

Neptune's shoulders slumped, mentally cursing his terrible luck today for trying to do a favor for a buddy. "Okay fine, the truth then. With Blake your team would be complete, I had already signed up Sun this morning before you and Jaune arrived."

"Oh..." Yang immediately understood why Neptune had been hesitant moments earlier.

"I don't understand what the problem is? So what is Sun is already signed up?" Blake's expression was impassive to her two companions who both looked at her mildly confused.

"Um... so there would be no problem for you to sign up then?" Neptune asked, unsure of what direction the conversation had taken.

"I don't know, is there a problem?" Blake's amber eyes glared at the hesitant Neptune who looked utterly confused.

"Nope. No problem at all," Neptune stood up and turned frantically to a filing cabinet behind himself nearly running into it and knocking it over in the process as he fought to open a drawer and pull out a sheaf of papers. "Here let's get you started on that paperwork to get you signed up and official." Neptune sat down and with several stops and starts finally managed to get the process started which he breathed a sigh of relief when Blake became focused on her task allowing him a moment to look at Yang almost expectantly with a pleading expression. He, however, was unsure of what to make of Yang's newest expression, she seemed slightly too happy about something and that had Neptune very, very afraid.

* * *

 **What's this a new story!**

 **Yep, it is.**

 **Been having a serious case of writer's block with my other works at the moment and nothing was helping, yet this story flowed almost naturally as I sat down to write it. Probably a lot to do with the other stories all having very serious plots, death and war, all that together I think put me in a funk towards them and unable to sit down and write for them.**

 **So that's where this story came from, A nice little slice of life after all the heroics and battles are over and how their lives are now.**


	2. Chapter 2

Yang felt giddy after leaving the Huntsmen Office behind, her mind spinning at the possibility of one of the biggest mysteries of their group maybe being solved after eight long years.

Sure there was every chance that nothing would happen during the three weeks in the wilderness but the possibility of the long standing bet coming to an end made her razor focused on making sure Blake didn't randomly change her mind about wanting to take part in this job, and that all started, as far as she was concerned, by not letting Blake have any time to dwell on the fact that she would be spending three weeks in the wilderness with Sun, something she definitely would not do if she wasn't in dire need of the Lien.

"So, we leave in two day's and you have nothing but the clothes on your back so I guess that means shopping!" Yang smiled, shopping was a simple, easy, distraction that could kill the entire day if she played her hand right.

"I guess that's as good a place as any to start with, it will have to be just the essentials for me though." Blake said while mentally calculating on what she had to work with and what she would need for the job.

"Nonsense, consider this as a welcome to Vale gift from me, I've been working so much I have a nice surplus of spending money at the moment."

"I couldn't accept that Yang, I'll just make due with what I can afford."

"Nope, not gonna happen. How about this, since I know we are both annoyingly stubborn how bout you just pay me back after the job." Yang grinned both inwardly and outwardly not believing how clever she just was. Buying Blakes gear and getting her to pay her back after the job basically ensured the Blake couldn't back out.

"I guess that would be okay, alright deal."

"Great, now come on, Jaune's set to come on the job so most of the miscellaneous stuff will be handled by him. So we can focus on more personalized stuff for you, let's start with clothing and work on the rest afterward." Yang threw an arm over Blake's shoulder steering her through the streets of Vale.

* * *

Jaune wandered through the equipment store with a cart in tow that was filled with a collection of equipment he would need for the contract. He knew two of the three people he was going with and while he didn't work with Sun often he knew that the Monkey Faunus was reliable if sometimes absentminded, though he did remember Sun being far more focused about work in the years since he and Blake had broken up. The other was Yang and most of what filled his cart currently was equipment he knew she would forget to bring herself.

Flipping through his scroll casually going over the hasty list he had made while he travelled to the store he double checked what was inside the cart against what he had written down and with a smile he pushed the cart to the register, quickly finishing the transaction and even paying the store to hold onto his purchases and have them delivered to the Bullhead docks in two days.

Jaune liked this service and utilized it quite regularly, it saved him on lugging the heavy gear across a large portion of the city multiple times and also conveniently freed up his entire afternoon.

He found himself wandering through a park unsure of what to do with his day though, he had expected to be working but with the high salary job he hadn't thought to take anything else and now it was too late to go back and he wasn't sure he would have wanted to regardless.

"I could pay Ren and Nora a visit, its been a few weeks since I've had time for that." Jaune mused out loud as he strolled through the park, the day was warm but he didn't overly mind. "Yeah, that's not a bad idea, though I need to come prepared." Smiling to himself he turned towards a shop that sold all kinds of kid related merchandise from toys to candy and a slew of things in between. "Hmm, what would the Twin's want... Ren said no more Candy so the easy choice is taken from me. Hmm what to get though, they have been spoiled rotten by pretty much all of us." Jaune's mind wandered as he crossed the park trying to mentally pick out the right gift before even arriving at the store.

He didn't exaggerate when thinking the three kids had everything, with himself as a doting 'Uncle' and four very eager 'Aunt's' the children of Ren and Nora were well taken care of. Some might worry that the children would become spoiled but that was likely never to happen, while Ren and Nora were very doting parents they remembered what they had to live through and the lessons it had instilled in them, lessons that the pair had instilled into their children, or at least the oldest the others being too young for that still.

Sif, the oldest at six was the spitting image of what he assumed Ren looked like as a child, she was the oldest of the three and was very much her fathers daughter personality wise at least though Nora was hidden in there as well, it only took one hug to understand what she had taken from her mother and that was her ridiculous strength, many an unaware visitor to the home left with a limp. Jaune knew what he would get her, she was an easy one to shop for, she desired to be a Huntsman like her parents were, even if neither had taken a Huntsman job in Years both kept up with their training and young Sif would watch her parents in awe of their abilities. A toy wouldn't do for Sif, Jaune remembered a collection of items he had in storage from years past and knew what he would give Sif.

The twins were harder to shop for, Eric and Lief didn't exactly have much preference on things yet, pretty much put anything that was shiny or made noise in front of the pair and they were happier than could be, though he simply assumed that had to do with them being only slightly more than a year old. "Nora would want the loudest thing imaginable and Ren would want something soothing... Not really good criteria to work off of." In the end, Jaune settled on a couple of story books that he thought the kids might enjoy.

Stopping by a storage facility he hadn't visited in years he entered the container belonging to him and after a quick search found what he was looking for.

Unravelling the large poster Jaune admired the figure on it for a moment before carefully rolling it back up and placing it inside a cardboard tube to more safely transport the large poster without damaging it.

* * *

"UNCLE JAUNE!" The high pitch squeal of excitement greeted Jaune as Sif swung the door open for him and she quickly wrapped her arms around one of his legs squeezing it tightly.

"Heyya Sif, strong as ever aren't yah!" Jaune reached down and ruffled the girl's hair as he walked peg-legged into the house having to swing the grappled leg as he walked inside.

"Uh huh, I managed to lift Magnhild over my head just yesterday."

"Oh, that's pretty impressive Magnhild is pretty heavy." Jaune smiled at the thought of the little girl grappling his leg raising her mother's weapon, which was no easy feat, the weapon aside from Ruby's Cresent Rose was undoubtedly one of the heaviest Jaune had ever seen, even the Giant sword Yatsuhashi used didn't weigh as much as either weapon.

"Darn right it's heavy, gotta make sure when ya hit the Grimm they stay down." Nora appeared from a side room off the entrance and as she spoke looked towards her daughter with a smile, which appeared to also be a signal for her to release Jaune as well as Sif let go of the leg she held and Nora scooped up her and placed her on a single shoulder. "Jaune," Nora's eye's softened. "It's been too long, how have you been?"

"It hasn't been that long Nora only a couple week's."

"A couple weeks," Nora looked at Sif who looked back. "Nope it's been months, no years since we have seen each other, isn't that right Sif?"

"Uh huh, Uncle Jaune has been away forever!"

Jaune stared at the pair with a smile on his face enjoying the antics. "Where are the twins?"

"You mean the monsters, I managed to induce a food coma to get a few hours peace and quiet, speaking of that, Sif could you run to the Garden and tell your father more company has arrived." Nora set her daughter on the floor.

"Okay, mom. Be right Back Uncle Jaune!" With that Sif disappeared into the back of the house.

"More company? I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"Nah, Weiss just stopped by for a buncha boring business stuff, you showing up is a good excuse to end it early and let Renny relax for a bit. I would say she work's him too hard but that would be a lie, if anything she doesn't let him do enough, she's running herself ragged." Nora's voice was filled with concern for her friend.

"Is it really bad enough to be concerned about? I'll be honest I don't see her that much to be able to have any sort of reference point." Jaune followed Nora as she moved into another room, the kitchen. Jaune sat in his usual chair for his visits as Nora vanished for a moment returning with a cool drink for him.

"I think it's just a slow build up of four years on constant stress with no real relief during the time, ruining one company and starting another in secret is probably fairly stress inducing."

"I could imagine, the most Stressful thing I need to deal with on a daily basis is how to deal with Yang."

"In that case, I think I still have the better deal." Weiss smiled from the doorway into the room having walked into the conversation. "You truly are doing a service to Humanity by keeping her attention away from the rest of us." Weiss smiled her eye's dancing brightly as she spoke.

Jaune found it hard to believe Weiss was stressed at all, she appeared the same as ever and she was even taking part in the conversation with some playful banter but years of experience had taught him to look beyond the surface and he immediately noticed the subtle things that were out of place for Weiss that would indicate she was not completely fine. "How have you been Weiss?"

"I'm doing just fine thank you, and yourself?"

Jaune frowned inwardly, the banter was already gone, Weiss had simply slipped up and it was back to formalities between them again. "I'm doing well, Yang and I are actually about to undertake a job for your company." Jaune took a gambit to see if he could get Weiss to actually talk to him like a normal person and not with so much formality.

"Oh, the new mine contract, that was quite lucky that you managed to snag such a lucrative contract."

"Tell me about it, feels like it's been months since I have landed a job that paid well." Jaune kept his smile up but inwardly frowned, Weiss was still being defensive around him seemingly incapable of having a real conversation with him unless it was a slip up on her part. "So... " Jaune really had no idea where to take this conversation and glanced desperately at Nora who was pointedly making herself less noticeable, she did, however, have a smile on her face as she watched the awkward interaction between the two.

"Auntie Weiss could you move please." Sif, saved Jaune as she interrupted the awkward silence.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I was distracted." Weiss sidestepped out of the doorway and let the girl pass by with her father following right behind.

Jaune looked at Ren and wondered what exact type of meeting between he and Weiss has happened, Weiss was immaculate as ever, no dust or dirt anywhere on her, none even staining her shoes, Ren on the other had looked like he had been weeding a garden, his pant legs were covered in dirt as well as shirt where he had no doubt wiped his hands at some point, his face wasn't exempt either as his forehead had a smear of sweat mixed with the dirt.

"Jaune, good to see you again brother is has been too long."

"See Jauney even Ren agree's it has been a long time and he never exaggerates!" Nora jumped into the conversation finally as Sif climbed into her lap and appropriated the drink Nora had poured for herself.

"I guess there is no faulting that logic." Jaune hummed to himself noticing from a corner of his eye that even Weiss smiled at the joke.

"So what brings you around today, normally your working almost every day." Ren asked as he found a towel and tried to clean away some of the dirt and sweat.

"As I was just mentioning with Weiss, I picked up a contract from your company, the new mine. Anyways the transport doesn't leave for a few days and I figured I would check up on you two since I had some spare time." Jaune spoke off handily not wanting to really talk about the job, he was more interested in just a friendly visit and wanted that to show.

"Oh, I assume Yang signed up with you, do you know the rest of your team yet, I believe I requested a four person team for that contract," Ren asked stoically, everyone present excluding Sif who was absorbed in her drink caught the look Weiss sent Ren. "Regardless of what Weiss would have had me do." Ren looked directly at Weiss making sure his stance was clear.

It didn't take Jaune long to realize at least part of what the impromptu meeting had been about. "I know Sun was signed up before any of us arrived and Neptune had a couple people in mind to round out the team, here lemme check my Scroll maybe the groups already ready." Jaune came to the rescue of the conversation that had awkwardly paused as he fished his Scroll from his pocket and flipped through the few screens needed to find what he was looking for.

Jaune looked at his Scroll in confusion, thinking he was reading the information wrong.

"What is with that expression Jaune, Is something wrong?" Weiss asked the first to notice Jaune's confused expression.

"I'm not sure, take a look at this am I reading this right, because I don't think I am?" Jaune looked at his scroll in confusion for a moment longer before handing it to Weiss.

Weiss took one look at the device and she paused as well before touching the screen opening up another folder. "I, uhh. This must be a mistake, Neptune must have entered something wrong into the Computer because there is no way this is right."

Ren and Nora exchanged as glance before asking in unison both intrigued. "What is it, What is the Scroll saying."

Jaune looked at the device again as Weiss handed it back. "Blake, Blake is our fourth."

"No, she's not, she's not even in Vale or setup in the Huntsman system's, something is obviously wrong with your Scroll." Weiss said calmly looking confident on the matter.

Jaune was still thinking over his initial meeting with Yang this morning deep in thought as Nora set out snacks and extra drinks around the table.

"I'm... I'm not sure that's the case Weiss." Jaune stared at the floor mind going over the facts, few as there were, of what he remembered.

"Jaune I know my teammates and while Ruby or Yang might randomly move across an entire world without informing anyone of it Blake and myself are different," Weiss ignored the several raised eyebrows at that statement. "I think I would know if Blake had moved to Vale." Weiss looked supremely confident and seemed to even be enjoying managing to hold a sort-of conversation with himself.

"Okay, if you know your team so well answer me this, how many times in your life have known Yang to be happy and smiling before mid morning or later."

The long pause was answer enough for the three in the Room that Weiss actually couldn't immediately come up with a response. "What, she's not a morning person." Weiss grew annoyed trying to think of an instance. "How does that pertain to the conversation about Blake anyway?"

"One more question before I get to that. Out of everyone you know who aside from Ruby could you imagine would elicit the response of a smiling, happy, early morning Yang?" Jaune could have made a shot in the dark with his hypothesis about why Yang had been so happy this morning but aside from the fact that he had little to go on only that she wasn't as focused on teasing him or making conversation this morning with Neptune that he noticed something was different at all.

"I see what you're getting at Jaune, but like I said, Blake cannot be in Vale, I'll even prove it to you I'll call her right now."

Everyone around the table watching in interest as Weiss pulled out her Scroll and with a few simple gestures the device was ringing, by the second ring it had been picked up on the other side and the three around the table watched in quiet interest, even Sif who didn't really understand what the adults were doing sat quietly and watched.

"Hello, you have reached the Scroll of Blake Belladonna, she is currently naked in a changing room and is unable to take your call right now."

The entire room froze for a moment, all four adults were stunned at the sound of Yang's voice coming through the scroll currently as the number and picture displayed was clearly Blake's.

"Yang? Wait, no time out!" Wiess looked around the room in a hurry not really looking for anything just trying to collect her thoughts, much the same as the other three adults in the room.

"You called Blake and now you're asking for a time out? Geez, and people say I have bad manners on a Scroll Call." Yang's voice pulled further away from the Scroll, "It's just Weiss, I think she figured out you're in Vale, I personally blame Neptune." Yang's voice moved closer again. "SO what can I do for ya Weiss-Cream?"

"First please stop calling me that and secondly what is Blake doing in Vale?"

"Never gonna happen and as for the other half, I will leave that for her to tell. Oh hey, if you want the full story we are at Brisco's shopping for some equipment for Blake, you should come join us."

"Oh no I couldn't possibly intrude, you two have a... Hey wait, let go Nora."

Nora had seen what was about to happen and jumped forward almost upsetting the table as she stole the Scroll out of Weiss's hands.

"Heya Yang, Weiss would love to join you two. You did say Brisco's right? I'll personally make sure she is there in short order."

"Sound's great Nora, you're welcome to join us as well, we will make a day of it. Anyways gotta go, see you soon."

With that last verbal exchange and with the added comedy of Nora and Weiss wrestling for the Scroll Nora had stolen the called ended and Weiss sagged to the floor in defeat before making for her feet and trying to escape the building as Nora wrapped an arm around her leg and stopped her from going anywhere.

"Nuh uh Weiss, we have a girls day out to attend and I told Yang I would make sure you were there so you're not going anywhere." Nora stared down the White haired woman who didn't look entirely swayed by the statement or the slightly menacing gaze Nora was giving her.

"I will be doing no such thing, Blake saw fit to not inform me she was coming to Vale she clearly doesn't want to spend time with me." Weiss responded as she successfully managed to slip out of Nora's grasp and made for an exit only to have Ren bar her path.

"I find that unlikely," Ren spoke calmly. "It is clear to me that no one in this room knew she was in Vale."

Weiss's eyes looked to each person in turn and after a moment of rational thought she calmed down. "Okay, I see your point, I... I just overreacted." Weiss looked down for a moment ashamed of jumping to a conclusion that was dishonest to the Blake she knew.

"No harm was done," Ren turned from Weiss and looked at his wife. "Will you be taking Sif with you?" Ren looked to his daughter who was watching the strange antic's of the adults with a happy expression as she continued to sip on the lone unspilled drink that she had saved when Nora had unsettled the table earlier.

"I could," Nora turned to her daughter. "How bout it kiddo, do you want to go shopping with Mommy and a buncha Auntie's?"

"Uh huh!" Sif responded excitedly as she hopped down from her chair and placed her empty drink on the counter.

"I'll need a few minutes to change and clean up, Ren hunny could you get Sif ready for me please."

"Of course dear. I'll be back in a moment Jaune." Ren scooped up his daughter and carried her in a piggyback towards her room to get her proper clothing leaving Jaune and Weiss alone in the kitchen.

"..."

"..."

"So... uh, how has work been going?" Jaune asked out of desperation trying to push through the awkward silence the two were suffering.

"Fine."

"That's good, real good..."

"And you?"

"Oh uh, great I guess, a little monotonous at times."

"I see."

"..."

"..."

Long minutes passed in silence as the two awkwardly stood waiting for someone to return, eventually being saved by Ren returning with a freshly changed Sif and moments later by a similarly freshened up Nora. A few parting pleasantries were exchanged between the four and soon the women left leaving Ren and Jaune behind.

"I see Weiss is still awkward around you, have you ever figured out the reason behind that yet Jaune?" Ren asked as the two men returned to the kitchen and together cleaned up the mess and retrieved new drinks and snack for themselves.

"Can't say I have, no one else gets the same reaction and trust me I have been watching to see if there were any connections so that I could explain this away logically instead of just having her attitude randomly shift like it did shortly after she moved to Vale." Jaune helped himself to some of the bread and cheese that sat on the table.

"It is strange, you are the only person she behaves differently around, if we were younger I would say she is infatuated with you but I doubt that to be the case."

"Thank you Ren, I enjoy the blow to my fragile ego." Jaune smiled at his long time friend who grinned back himself. "Whatever, enough about me and Weiss, what about you two, from the sound's of it you two are having a sort of disagreement."

Ren frowned. "Not much a disagreement more of a prolonged arguement. I have forced her to take a holiday, if she would actually take the time off."

"Nora said she was stressed and I caught hints of it myself but is it really that bad?" Jaune was concerned, he knew Weiss was overzealous when it came to her work.

"Considering she is watching the job's I post to the Huntsman Office and then coming here to critique and offer what she would have done, yes it really is that bad." Ren rubbed his forehead his eyebrows coming together like he was fighting off a headache currently.

"Oh..." Jaune smiled to himself, glad for once he wasn't the stubborn one causing others headaches. "So what's your plan for her then? Cause this is Weiss we're talking about, nothing is going to stop her."

"I honestly don't know, I forced her to take a break because even with my limited business skills I was catching mistakes she was making and I can't run the RFTDC by myself for long, eventually I will need her advice or help and I would rather it be on amicable terms rather than her holding a grudge and holding it over me." Ren sighed as he took another drink while staring into his cup.

"I assume you have explained that all to Weiss?"

Ren simply nodded.

"How about sending her on the Mine Contract? She is still a registered Huntsman in Vale, give her at least two maybe three weeks out in the wilderness with her friends might do wonders for her."

"Hmmm, that's not a terrible idea, but who would remain behind?"

"No one!" Jaune smiled at Ren watching his friend react with a single raised eyebrow. "Just don't pay Weiss, not like she needs the Lien. Send her out with us. Make up some stipulation that once the job is done you will talk with her again about helping with the Company again." Jaune smiled at his relatively simple plan, simple was usually the best. "Plus with me knowing about the issue between you and her I can give you an honest reading on whether or not she actually manages to unwind and relax like you say she needs."

"That's actually a really good idea. I think I will take you up on that." Ren's mind fired up with the plan began the mental planning necessary to broach the idea to Weiss, he already felt his headache that had been forming earlier to recede with Jaune's simple plan.

"Hey, I'm just happy to help and if it get's me time with Weiss to figure out why she can't carry a conversation with me then it's a win-win right?" Jaune smiled and raised his cup which Ren mimiced, toasting each other before each drained their glass and moved onto more mundane topics of conversation.

* * *

"So when are you going to take your mandatory holiday like Renny want's you too?" Nora asked Weiss as she watched her daughter dart up and down the sidewalk peering into shops with interest or staring thoughtfully at people who passed by her.

"I don't see the need too, eventually he will need my help and ask for it, in the mean time I will continue doing much the same as I have, it is only a matter of time before my father gets desperate and try's something rash or drastic to save his company and I need to be ever vigilant!" Weiss said with a bit more effort and force than she intended and was about to apologize when she noticed Nora hadn't been actively paying attention to her response as she was currently bending over to look at something Sif had found interesting enough to show her mother.

"You do realize he's worried about you right?" Nora stood and continued their walk as Sif returned to her solo adventure further ahead. "Ren worries about a fair few things these days and really he shouldn't have to worry about you, I mean he will regardless of if he has to or not but you shouldn't be one of his primary worries."

"What would you have me do Nora? I can't let this company fail, yes my fathers company is quite possibly ruined for good but what about the new competition, both Vacuo and Mistral have formed their own companies and I only have one more year before the Vale council will begin allowing outside companies back into the kingdom, I need to make sure the RFTDC is ready for them to come here but also for the company to be ready to move into other markets as well." Weiss was tired of this conversation, she had had it multiple times with Ren over the weeks since her forced vacation and couldn't understand why he refused to listen to her.

"Okay, but then what? Will you take time off after that or will there be a new greater threat that you need to save your company from? How long before you burn yourself out, Ren's only doing this for your own good, you must realize that." Nora looked towards Weiss hoping to see her friend at least considering her words but frowned when Weiss had set her jaw rigid and was clear she wasn't entertaining any idea's about how she should treat her work with her company. Nora sighed inwardly but she didn't really expect anything to change, if Ren couldn't do it then what chance did she have, instead she changed the topic to something a little more sinister. "Fine, i'll drop it, Ren's job anyway. Instead, lets talk about Jaune, or more specifically what just happened back at my house." Nora grinned almost violently as her smile spilled across her entire face.

Weiss's steps faltered for a faint moment, she had expected Nora to continue to badger her about her work with her husband, the sudden gear shift in the conversation caused her to slip momentarily. "I... I have no idea what you're talking about, nothing happened back at your house." She tried to recover gracefully but new the instant Nora's smile grew further that unlike the previous topic had been dropped with little fight this one wasn't going to be so easy, she now had to get Nora's curiosity satisfied before they met up with the others or this would be her entire day.

"That's exactly my point," Nora still grinning wagged her finger. "Nothing ever happen's when you and Jaune are together. Now I don't think it's Jaune's fault, mostly because he keeps sending you confused looks all the time and tries to be the one who starts the conversations that you manage to stop with so little effort, and then there are all those times that you slip up and seem to actually enjoy talking with him and there is even playful banter, heck if we were ten years younger and back at Beacon I would think you had a crush on him, now though I think you're hiding something else." Nora's grin was ever present as she spoke, her eyes taking in everything that Weiss was, looking for the crack in her armor for her to strike at and uncover this mystery that had been four years in the making, and now that Weiss was tired and distracted a direct approach might work.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, we have trouble holding a conversation because we have so little in common."

Nora quickly checked to make sure Sif was out of earshot. "Bullshit."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Bullshit."

Weiss was lost for a response, her instinct to go for righteous indignation was halted by her inability to formulate a reason why she should be indignant. "Fine, fine. It is bullshit, as you would put it, I can't really argue around that." Weiss sighed, she could fight this conversation but this wasn't something Nora would give up on so easily.

"Well then if I'm right, give me an answer, can't leave me hanging like this."

Weiss looked at Nora for a moment considering her options. "I could, it would feel oh so satisfying for the brief time it would take us to reach Blake and Yang then I would simply have the three of you, scratch that the two of you fishing for an answer, I'm fairly certain Blake wouldn't care that much."

Nora looked on the verge of vibrating in happiness that she was going to get the answer to one of the mysteries of the group.

"The stories, not all that exciting Nora, I asked Jaune out on a date after moving to Vale, and he turned me down. Ever since then I don't know how to act around him. See boring answer to your's and everyone else's question, the only reason I haven't admitted it to anyone was because it was embarrassing." Weiss looked away from Nora ashamed of the childish reason behind her awkwardness.

"Wait, that's it?" Nora was crestfallen, she had expected something greater or more elaborate than that, honestly, she viewed this in severe disappointment, a four-year mystery was blown off on such a minor interaction, no intrigue or anything.

"That's pretty much it."

"What do you mean pretty much, either that's it or it isn't." Nora looked at Weiss her eye's boring past her defenses searching for the truth.

"Fine, full story then but it's the same result." Weiss tried to glare angrily at Nora but the glare was deflected easily by Nora's happy attitude and the returning Sif who had grown tired of walking and was now insisting on a piggy back ride that Nora happily obliged. "When I first arrived in Vale four years back, Jaune was the only one here, you and Ren were in Mistral visiting Pyrrah's family. Ruby was stuck in Vacuo with her entourage of people she hates and Yang wasn't answering my call's probably out partying. Jaune came to my rescue, I had come to Vale with next to nothing, my father made sure that leaving Atlas and renouncing permanently my last name that it wasn't going to be easy for me, my luggage was" Weiss put her fingers up in the air doing the 'quotes' animation. "Lost and even my bank accounts were gone, entirely vanished without a trace, friends I had made in Atlas while I lived there suddenly didn't know me and I was cut off from the outside world." Weiss's expression darkened at the memory of what her father put her through.

"Then Jaune arrived to help, he let me stay in his apartment that first night, cleaned the sheet's and everything and let me have his bed while he slept on the floor, then he lent me the money to get back on my feet, introduced me to the right people so I could start working right away and even went as far as to pay out of pocket for the Dust, Myrtenaster need's to function." Weiss smiled now at this memory. "By the time people learned I was in Vale everything was taken care of by Jaune, no one besides the two of us and now you I guess know how bad off I was when I arrived in Vale.

"Anyways, a couple months after that I finally had the Lien to pay Jaune back but he simply refused to take what I owed him, I tried for awhile to give it back to him but he always found out and returned it to me, saying he didn't want to be paid back for helping a friend in need." Weiss had a fond look on her face as she remembered the moment. "I finally gave up on trying to pay him back, when I did we had a normal relationship for awhile, we never went on any Job together, I was already pretty much done with my Huntsmen work at the point and was setting up the start of my company and with Blake's help my fathers eventual ruin. Jaune helped where he could, working for next to nothing and spending a considerable amount of personal time helping when he could. Eventually, I don't know when but I viewed him differently than before. I asked him one night as we met outside the Huntsman offices, I was leaving some contracts for Neptune the next morning and he was handing in his work slip, we just sort of ran into each other and I don't know why I chose then to ask him out but I did and he turned me down. I felt so embarrassed." Weiss's face pinked slightly at the end of the retelling of the story but once she composed herself she looked at Nora hoping the full story satisfied the woman.

The expression Nora wore was not what Weiss expected, Nora looked almost ready to smack her in the head.

"Are you stupid? I mean seriously, you ask Jaune out once after a long workday and that's it? Did he even know what you meant by it?" Nora wanted to strangle Weiss, Jaune probably didn't even realize Weiss had asked him out back then, by the end of most of Jaune's days he was exhausted and running on fumes, it was quite likely he was just going through the motions and not really listening to what Weiss had said that night, considering how he interacted with Weiss he probably didn't even remember the meeting at all.

"I, wait, what do you mean?" Weiss faltered again confused at Nora's response.

"You just admitted to not working with Jaune as a Huntsman, well I know from Ren working with him for quite a few years Jaune is a zombie after a solid days work, maybe that has changed recently but back then he was on auto pilot, I bet he doesn't even remember that conversation with you at all."

"Wait, really..."

* * *

 **Heh heh heh.**

 **I'm enjoying this way too much. I never write like this and I must say the change of pace is quite refreshing.**

 **Also, I kinda died this week, next to no writing happened because my life became absorbed in the new X-COM expansion and I simply couldn't concentrate long enough to write anything, mind kept going back to thinking of my Ironman run.**

 **Heh, well anyways hope you all enjoy the chapter. Me, I loved writing it and hope to have more for you soon, not just this but for my other stories as well.**


	3. Chapter 3

Weiss and Nora joined Yang and Blake when the latter were just finishing up at Brisco's which suited everyone well enough, the clothing store catered exclusively to Huntsmen and their need for durable and resilient clothing for their line of work, but it wasn't the most social of places to shop regardless of how popular it was for having both fashionable and functional clothing.

The four women and a very excite Sif upon seeing one of her lesser seen Aunt's took off down the street heading towards their next destination as Blake told Weiss and Nora the same story she had told Yang earlier in the day about handing over leadership of the White Fang to someone deserving of the position and needing to escape her mothers growing need to see Blake in a relationship.

"So what are your plan's once you are a bit more settled in Vale Blake?" Weiss asked as the story came to its eventual end and everyone had finished laughing at the entirely believable scenario that Kali might have put her daughter through.

"I'm not entirely sure, right now money is my only real concern. Running a none profit, humanitarian organization, surprisingly didn't make me a rich person over the years."

"Well, there is my company, if you want you can have a job before you know it."

"Thank you Weiss, but that's not really the life I want to lead. Which I guess goes hand in hand on why I stepped down from the White Fang." Blake looked into the distance obviously internally reminiscing.

"Now that sounds like a story, how bout you regale us with your memories while we head to the dust shop and get you loaded up." Yang joined the conversation with gusto throwing an arm around Weiss and Blake's shoulders while matching their walking speed.

"Not much to tell, guess it's like the history books taught us about peacetime and wartime leaders, I am a Wartime leader, I usurped control of the Fang from its leadership and formed it into a faction that helped us save the world, but when it came to doing the other stuff, humanitarian aid missions among other things I was woefully unprepared, sure I managed to succeed at that but only with the help of a great many others." Blake smiled fondly remembering the people who she had worked with for so many years, both in times of conflict and peace. "So anyways, I learned fairly early on, even if it took me this long to do anything about it, an office job wasn't for me."

Yang and Nora both raised their arms holding imaginary drinks. "Cheer's to that." The said in unison.

"Do the three of you seriously not plan for your future's?"

Nora raised her hand almost instantly. "I did, tricked Ren into loving and marrying me didn't I?" Nora grinned impishly at her response, the action was infectious and soon everyone was sharing in a laugh even Weiss who had tried to remain serious couldn't refute the truth of Nora's words.

"Okay, Nora gets a pass but you two, you can't be Huntsmen forever, it's not a lifestyle that you can keep forever eventually everyone has to slow down." Weiss said with a seriousness that the conversation had been missing up till now.

"I think we all know that but at the same time, some of us just don't have a plan in place yet, or not whole plans anyway." Yang shrugged off the topic not really in the mood for such a serious topic currently.

"I understand what you mean Weiss but I personally don't want to think about it right now, I just finished doing something I had invested my entire life to, now I think I just want to relax and help the world in a different way, and right now that way is being a Huntsman and actually putting my skills to use against Grimm instead of humans."

Blake's response seemed to appease Weiss more than Yang's as Weiss seemed to understand the subtext of what Blake had said.

"Fine, no more serious conversation." Weiss looked over her companions who all looked relieved with the exception of Sif who was smiling happily, totally oblivious to the conversation the adults were having.

The others agreed with gusto and conversation moved onto more mundane topics for the rest of the afternoon as the shopping trip continued and between Weiss and Yang, Blake was fully outfitted with everything she would need plus a few extra's Weiss insisted were gifts and she wouldn't take no for an answer.

As the group left the final store bags in arms Nora was the first one to depart saying her farewells and scooping up an exhausted Sif, Nora left the others and made her way home making playful banter with her tired daughter. Behind her, the three Women smiled thoughtfully towards their departing fourth.

"Today was nice." Weiss was the first one to speak after Nora had vanished into the distance.

"Yeah, it really was, reminds me a lot of the past before everything happened." Yang said, looking thoughtful as she unconsciously rubbed her mechanical arm.

"Too bad Ruby couldn't have been here today, it has been too long since the entire team to be together again." Blake said as the three women began to head down the street in another direction.

"Yeah but look at it this way, if she was here we would never have managed to make it through an entire shopping trip without getting swarmed, there is something to be said for not being quite as famous as Ruby, right." Yang grinned as she spoke, each of the three present was famous in some regard, but all three were easily eclipsed by her sister and each had admitted at one point or another that they wouldn't ever have wanted to switch places with their leader after seeing what Ruby puts up with these days.

"True, but I think I speak for all of us that I miss seeing her all the time, we see her less than you Blake and she lives in Vale, or at least she own's a place in Vale, I don't think she has been there in months." Weiss frowned at the absence of the thought she had put in her mind.

"I don't think she has ever set foot in the place, whenever she does make it to Vale she usually spends all her time at my place or dads, I wouldn't be surprised if the place is covered in dust." Yang chimed in.

"I doubt that, I bet someone has the job to clean the place on a daily basis just in case she returned home spontaneously, Someone in the Fang had something like that setup for me, I absolutely hated it, couldn't stand to be in my house most days."

"Yeah I could see my sister hating that as well, plus the place is just surrounded by overly rich snobs with more money than brain cells, if Ruby spent a night there I don't think I could look at her the same way again." Yang grinned as she picked up the walking pace, late afternoon was quickly slipping into evening, and it was growing colder by the minute. "Before it gets any colder I should go pick up my Bike and get it home before I get another ticket." Yang fished around in her pockets and pulled out a key, tossing it to Blake. "Here is an extra key, feel free to let yourself in if you beat me there which you probably will, I have a considerable distance to backtrack to my bike. See ya later Weiss." With that and a smile and wave, Yang took off down the street, leaving the other two alone.

"Well that leave's just the two of us, how about I call us a cab, get you to Yang's place quicker."

"Sure."

* * *

Jaune stood from the table and stretched his taut back muscles, stiff and sore from remaining seated for so long, Jaune had spent the entire day with Ren, the twins had remained asleep through the afternoon and only with a few scattered checks from Ren to make sure they were still asleep the afternoon had passed in quiet conversation ranging through dozens of topics.

Now it was getting on in the day and the afternoon was about to transition over to evening and he decided to head home for the day.

"This has been a nice visit Ren, I should make doing this more of a habit than I currently do."

"It would be nice to see you more often, I would make a comparison between you and Weiss working too much but you at least know how to relax." Ren smiled and stood as well noticing as Jaune turned to leave that there was a forgotten bag and cardboard cylinder at his feet. "I think you are forgetting something Jaune." Ren reached down to pick up the items for his friend.

"Huh I don't remember coming with..., oh right those, right. Actually, those are gifts for your kids, the bag holds a few storybooks that all three will probably enjoy." Jaune motioning to the bag that Ren now held while taking the tube from him at the same time.

"This one is for Sif though." Jaune carefully opened the container and pulled out its singular content treating it with care the entire time.

"Is that one of Pyrrha's?" Ren asked as Jaune began unrolling it on the table.

"Yep, I remembered listening to Nora tell Sif a story about team JNPR and Sif had so many questions about Pyrrha. I know we showed her some pictures at the time but I would like to think she might enjoy having something a bit bigger, that also show's off just how awesome Pyrrha was." Jaune had finished unrolling the poster across the kitchen table, he stared at it with a great deal of pride, but underneath that, he still felt the pang of loss that he had felt all those years ago. He was accustomed to the sensation, he had long stopped trying to ignore it as a weakness to be beaten, now it was simply his own silent way of honoring his friend and partner.

Ren placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder and smiled. "Sif will love it, and I couldn't ask for a better role model for my daughter than Pyrrha." Ren gave Jaune's shoulder a comforting shake as Jaune looked toward him and smiled back.

"I hope so, anyway I should be going, the day's might be hot but it cool's off fast and I walked here so I need to get going before it really cools off too much." Jaune headed to the door followed by Ren who said his own farewell and then Jaune was alone outside the home.

Some sunlight still filtered down from the sky along the horizon but it would be long before the streetlights came alive as the sun rapidly descended beyond the horizon. Shifting his gear around and settling Corcea Mors to a more comfortable position he turned towards his own home.

* * *

 **The Next Morning.**

* * *

Jaune rolled over and turned off his Alarm clock again before it had a chance to activate and ruin his morning. Jaune considered rolling back over and going back to sleep since he had nothing important to do today since he wasn't going to take another job but the thought was quickly pushed aside as a waste of a free day to stay huddled in bed.

Rolling out of his sheets he completed his morning routine and in short order was ready to meet the day again, through force of habit more than any real need his weapons were once again strapped to his waist and his armor fastened securely to his frame as he left his apartment, unsure of what to do with his day but knowing he didn't want to waste it cooped up inside.

Having a routine for the days he worked was one thing but having one for free day's wasn't something he had ever done as he rarely took much time for himself outside of his occasional trips home to visit his parents and siblings, or the few who still resided in the town they had all grown up in. Jaune didn't want to impose on Ren and Nora again so soon even if he knew they wouldn't mind and considering he was about to spend several weeks with Yang and Blake he ruled them off his list quickly too.

After an aimless walk, Jaune found himself where he would normally end up on any given day at this time standing outside the Huntsmen office's though today he was short his companion, with a smirk to himself Jaune entered the building, figuring he should at least say hello to Neptune.

Without the pause to wait for Yang like he normally did Jaune was actually one of the first to arrive at the building today, normally the slight ten minute delay would have him arriving with the morning rush and the building would be filled with people, now though there were only a few scattered Huntsmen and then the regular staff that were loitering around a coffee machine near the back. Jaune pickup out Neptune easily among the crowd and when Neptune saw him the two both made for his desk.

"Morning Jaune, I didn't expect to see you today what can I do for you?" Neptune smiled and sipped his coffee as he sat down offering Jaune a second cup he had brought with him.

Jaune took the cup and took a sip himself enjoying the flavour, something about the aroma reminded him of Beacon. "Nothing actually, I'm just sorta wandering aimlessly right now and ended up out front." Jaune grinned. "I think I have too much of a routine."

"Nothing wrong with that." Neptune leaned back in his chair. "Ren got ahold of me on my way to work this morning, you already know probably but the contract has changed, five person group and Weiss is your fifth."

"Yeah, kinda my idea actually. Give's the ladies a chance to visit and reconnect and also hopefully gets Weiss to take it easy for awhile."

"Yeah, Ren filled me in on the details. Must say this mission sounds like its going to be awkward the entire time. First, it was going to just be, as far as anyone knows, the first reunion of Sun and Blake in something like eight years and now there is the whole you and Weiss thing that no one understands. Hell, the only person going that, as far as I know, doesn't have anything going on is Yang and I'm not sure if that a good or bad thing." Neptune cracked a pretty wide grin.

"It should be interesting to say the least."

"Better you than me man." Neptune looked over his shoulder as someone passed by his desk and laid a stack of papers on it. "Whelp that's my signal to get to work, you're welcome to stick around if you're lost for something to do but I'm pretty sure you can find something more interesting to do than watch me file paperwork and hand out contracts."

"Yeah, I think I'll go find a freshly painted wall to watch dry, see you later Neptune." With a wave Jaune left the office and checked the time frowning how little time he had actually spent inside and annoyed that he still couldn't think of anything to do for the day until he was struck with an idea, it had been a long time since he had been to the firing range as he rarely had reason to rely on his firearm but figured since he was planning to bring it on the job he might as well shake off the rust.

Jaune had never named the handgun he carried, it had been a gift from General Ironwood himself, the proud Atlas commander had had it commissioned for him sometime during the war and it was an exact replica of Ironwoods own in every detail except for the color, while the Generals was White and Grey Jaunes was White and Gold matching Corcea Mors.

After long months of owning the Gun and rarely using it Ruby had grown annoyed at his lack of interest in using such a state of the art weapon and had forcibly taken it upon herself to teach Jaune to use the weapon as well as maintain it, he had caught on quite quickly and became a respectable marksman in short order, but it never really changed his fighting style, Crocea Mors, either in shield and sword, or its two handed option were his go to options for combat, the Revolver was still left as an afterthought. Jaune carried the weapon with him though so when he decided to go to the firing range he wasn't forced to backtrack to his apartment.

* * *

Arriving at the indoor range Jaune found it to be almost entirely empty, he wasn't a common visitor to the establishment so he had no idea if this was a common thing or if he was just coming at a weird time, in the end it didn't matter to him and the place being all but empty with the exception of a few other Huntsmen who weren't even actively firing any weapons instead they were at a table apparently dismantling a complex looking weapon, likely trying to find some fault in it Jaune assumed judging from there annoyed expressions.

Taking the farthest alley from where the others stood Jaune prepared to start firing doubling up on hearing protection with ear plugs as well as a set of noise canceling headphones, Jaune took a moment to get comfortable then began to fire.

Jaune's morning slowly bleed away into the early afternoon as he worked off the rust he had accumulated in the long gap of time he had not actively used his firearm, sometime in the morning after he had scored several perfect scores on a stationary target Jaune activated the system to provide him with multiple moving targets, at this level Jaune began to struggle again, he still managed decent scores but frowned to himself as each round ended in he hadn't managed to consistently pass a sixty percent score on the moving targets.

With a relaxed ease, Jaune reloaded his weapon and was about to restart the exercise when he noticed he wasn't alone anymore, placing his gun on the counter Jaune turned and saw who had been watching him.

"Blake, so good to see you." Jaune gave her a warm smile not offering anything further currently as due to the long practice he was slightly sweaty and covered in a fine layer of dust residue. "Yang." Jaune nodded toward's his fellow Blonde.

"Heya Jauney, gotta say I didn't expect to see you here, I forget you even have that cannon sometimes for how much I see you use it." Yang motioned to the weapon resting on the counter.

"Ha ha yeah, I really should get more use out of it than I do, anyway what are you two up to?" Jaune looked between the two women and noticed Blake was carrying a couple boxes of ammunition and understood instantly.

"I'm a bit rusty when it comes to some of my Huntsman skill's, I figured I should do what I can to get rid of some of the rust." Blake replied simply as her eyes took in him and the surroundings.

Jaune noticed the simple action of Blake looking around at everything and figured she couldn't be as rusty as she imagined, she was if she still scanned an area so thoroughly. "Well I don't have much to offer in the way of Marksmanship advice I'll leave that to the expert but if you want to practice any of your sword skills that I can do."

As Blake went about preparing the alley next to Jaune's for her own use she retold the story of how she had left the Fang and Moved to Vale as well as lingering on the fact about her Mother, Jaune flinched at mention of Kali to which Blake smiled glad to see the memory of the only time the two met was still in Jaune's mind after all the long years.

"I see your smile Blake." Jaune grinned shaking the bizarre memory from his mind.

"Wait, am I missing something, whats with the weird smile?" Yang perked up looking between the two.

"Jaune here is my Mother's favorite suitor for me. Isn't that right Jaune?" Blake grinned as she slid a magazine into Gambol shroud and turned to invest herself into target practice leaving Jaune facing a very interested Yang.

"Okay, I want details now. Why on Remnant would Kali choose you as her favorite Suitor for Blake?" Yang's lilac eye's bored into Jaune's sapphire ones looking for the answer.

Jaune rolled his eyes but with a smile began to explain. "It really isn't that great of a story, Kali likes."

"Loves." Blake chimed in between shots showing she was listening to the conversation behind her.

"Right, Kali Loves my cooking." Jaune shrugged with a smile to Yang's raised eyebrow.

"Why would you be cooking for Kali?"

"Nora."

"Nora?"

"Tell her the story right Jaune." Blake said over her shoulder her voice light.

"Heh, alright alright." Jaune said with a sheepish grin he wore because he was so obviously teasing Yang with tidbits of information. "I'll skip past all the boring stuff though. Seven Years back, before Ren and Nora tied the knot and started a family we took on one of those world tour type jobs where we just took jobs and let ourselves travel like that for awhile. Eventually, that landed us on Menagerie and meeting up with Blake for a visit while we were there. Blake brought us to this massive house she lived in with her parents, made the introductions and everything and then Nora did her thing."

"Did her thing is an understatement, Nora vanished after my parents, she was fascinated with my Father and no one noticed she was missing for far too long in her case." Blake interrupted sending a glare at Jaune that read as tell the story right or else.

"Yeah, Nora vanished and when we found her she had pretty much destroyed Kali's kitchen attempting to make herself a snack, well destroyed my be overselling it but the room was caked in some kind of viscous goop that might have been pancake batter at one point. Regardless Ren and I set to cleaning up the room as well as with Blake's permission making a snack for Nora to distract her from running off to cause more havoc."

"I took Nora away to clean her up as well as to distract my mother away from her Kitchen so she wouldn't discover the mess, I doubt she would have been upset but figured why bother her when I knew the boys would do a good job cleaning up." Blake chimed in again this time frowning as she looked at her most recent target unsatisfied with the score.

"Right, sometime after we had cleaned up the room and Ren finished Nora's snack and brought it to her I was left alone cleaning up the last little bit but I was feeling hungry after cleaning the room so I figured I would make a snack for everyone else and went about making a tray of sandwiches." Jaune looked subversively towards Blake and moved slightly closer to Yang speaking in a low voice. "Is it a Cat Faunus thing, do they all like fish as much as Kali's kitchen indicates they do?" Jaune remembered hunting through the entire kitchen and finding it stocked with dozen's of varieties of different fish, but not a trace of beef, pork, or chicken to be found in the entire residence.

Yang nudged in closer herself, keeping her voice low as well. "Honestly I think Blake and Kali are just weird like that, none of the other Faunus I have met have had as weirdly specific tastes in food as those two." Yang sent Blake a cautious glance as she leaned back from Jaune.

Jaune shook his head at Yang's response before resuming the story at a normal volume. "I gathered the ingredients I could recognize from the kitchen and made a selection of sandwich's of different flavours, as I finished tidying up and was about to leave to deliver the food Kali entered the kitchen and we chatted for a few minutes, she claimed at first only one of the sandwiches but before I knew it the entire platter had been stolen by Blake's mother and she had a chill inducing look in her eye as she did so."

"I still don't believe this part of the story." Blake chimed in again as she glared at her most recent score, annoyance at the lack of improvement starting to show.

"You don't need to believe for it to be true, your mother went Feral when I tried to take the tray back thinking that she was only insisting on carrying it for me."

Blake rolled her eyes as she turned from the range and began rolling her shoulder trying to work the kinks out of the stiff muscles. "I still can't believe that my Mother managed to beat you to the point of Aura depletion with only a wooden severing tray but it clearly happened."

"Wait, really? Kali doesn't even have her own Aura to help her fight." Yang looked between the two in disbelief.

"To be fair, it wasn't like I was fighting back, I didn't think I needed to and when I realized I needed to I was already in pretty bad shape Aura wise." Jaune rubbed the back of his head an action that indicated he was remembering a blow from the fight to that spot and wasn't simply thinking about something.

"My mother apologized constantly as soon as Ghira and myself managed to calm her down, and the instance never repeated itself but during the entire time Jaune and them stayed with us my Mother began to drop less and less subtle hints that Jaune should cook something, and then came the instance right before they left the island when my Mother tried to set me up on a blind date with Jaune." Blake shook her head at the memory with a fond smile. "She was subtle about it I'll give her that, she tricked both Jaune and I into it, and it wasn't until after we met each other in a restaurant did we figure out Kali had played us both."

"Wait Kali set you two up on a date? Why am I only just hearing about this now, seven years later." Yang looked between the pair her expression a mixture of disbelief at the story and betrayal that no one had told her anything about this before now.

"Nothing to tell and also it wasn't anyone's business but ours." Blake sent Yang a glare that silenced the blonde. "Anyways we were tricked into a date which we didn't let go to waste, Menagerie doesn't have many fancy restaurants but my Mother managed to get us into one of the best so we took advantage of it even planned a bit of revenge that in retrospect probably backfired in the long run, not that it mattered Jaune was long gone by that time so my Mother wasn't able to do anything about it." Blake shook her head at the memories as she returned to her alley and prepared to get back to practice again.

Yang turned to Jaune eye's sparkling with interest. "What revenge?"

"Nothing special really, after the first fiasco with making food while I was visiting I stayed clear of the kitchen but after dinner at the restaurant Blake and I snuck into Kali's kitchen and Blake helped me make Dozen's of sandwiches which we boxed up and stored in a freezer, apparently Kali found them shortly after the Boat left and according to what Blake told me the sandwich's that were supposed to last for weeks or longer were gone in only a few days and Kali was apparently in a mood for a long while afterwards." Jaune grinned as he stood himself, intent on returning to his lane as well, to use the rest of the ammunition he had bought more than actually thinking he could improve his score.

* * *

"So what are your plan's for the rest of the day ladies?" Jaune walked down the sidewalk with Yang and Blake beside him, they had just finished at the target range and while Jaune hadn't really improved beyond what he managed before the two arrived Blake had quickly surpassed his score on the moving targets and after a dozen rounds of near perfect scores Blake had deemed herself good enough to warrant ending for the day, much to Yang's relief as she was quickly growing bored.

"No idea really, I guess we could go visit Ren and Nora?" Yang sent Blake an inquisitive glance to see if she was interested at all but her friend was staring off into space not really listening to the conversation happening around her. "I'll take the spaced out expression as a no." Yang Grinned turning towards Jaune. "Okay, we lack a plan, how about you anything interesting?"

"Not really, I got all the gear we would need plus extra's yesterday, the food's not an issue, as the contract has that being supplied for us though I think I might do some personal shopping for the trip now that I think about it. Basic Huntsmen rations might be filling and give us what we need to function but they do lack in diversity and three weeks of them might get old fast." Jaune's nose wrinkled at the thought of the bland food packages for multiple consecutive meals.

The mention of food seemed to bring BLake out of whatever daze she was in back to the present. "I would be on board for some grocery shopping." Blake said a little too excited by the idea as both Blondes gave her an apprehensive glance.

"I guess that's decided then, onwards to the Grocery store..." Yang pointed down the street in an effort to sound excited by the prospect but inwardly she groaned at the boredom the task would realistically be.

The shopping trip was handled with a speed that confused both the women as Jaune masterfully steered his way through the store with a cart adding a collection of items that when either went to inspect what he had thrown in nodded in approval at Jaune's choices. Soon the cart was filled with a selection of snacks that while healthy also tasted good, an assortment of drink's as well a drink mixes that could be stirred into water, a selection of spices and marinades for the final items Jaune added to the cart as they stopped by the deli and produce aisle's last, adding a large collection of assorted vegetables to the cart and from the deli a mixture of Beef, Pork, Chicken, and Fish. What filled the cart wouldn't go a long way if they resorted to only eating it but spaced in between meals of the Huntsmen rations would definitely create a welcomely diverse amount of meals.

"I guess we should split way's here, a bunch of this stuff need's to be refrigerated so I'll be taking it home, I'll see you two in the morning."

The group split up after a short farewell as Jaune managed to balance the large collection of bags around his body into some comfortable position and looking little burdened disappeared shortly afterward turning a corner and vanishing from sight.

Yang shook her hair banishing the goofy image of Jaune duck walking down the street and the many that would follow as he took a long walk home. "I guess we should probably call it a day too, now that Weiss is joining us we can't risk being late or we won't hear the end of it and I would rather not listen to her talk about us being late for three solid weeks." Yang took Blake's errant nod as her agreeing and the two women headed home themselves, making idle conversation as they traveled.

* * *

 **Morning of Departure  
**

* * *

Jaune arrived at the Bullhead docks early in the morning and was happy to see the equipment he had ordered was being unloaded when he arrived, after exchanging a few pleasantries with the workers and signing the documents indicating that the delivery had been made and then Jaune went to work loading the equipment and supplies into the Bullhead that was marked for the contract he was on.

As he began to load the equipment the first of his teammates arrived and Jaune smiled at the arrival of Weiss, knowing she would most definitely be the first one here even a little surprised she hadn't managed to beat him.

"Good morning Weiss." Jaune said with a smile as he continued his task of loading the Bullhead.

"Good morning to you as well Jaune."

Jaune stiffened at the tone Weiss had used to respond and turned to look at the White haired woman to make sure he had heard the light airy voice correctly but when he turned all he saw was Weiss walking around her vehicle to begin pulling out her own luggage from inside. Shaking his head Jaune returned to his task thinking he simply imaged the overly friendly sounding greeting he had received.

"Do you have anything that need's to be stored securely?"

"Just my Dust and I will just keep that with me, for all this is fine to put with the rest."

Jaune didn't pause this time when the response sounded friendly and instead he simply kept to his task. Weiss after emptying her vehicle drove off with it somewhere else to park it appearing long minutes later in the company of Sun Wukong, the two had apparently met in the parking lot.

Jaune heard them coming before he saw either of them as the two were having a somewhat loud conversation about some topic Jaune couldn't quite make out the details of but whatever it was ended shortly before they arrived.

"Jaune, how are you doing, man your looking good, putting me to shame at this point." Sun broke out into a friendly smiling upon seeing his fellow male Huntsman.

"Hardly." Jaune grinned as he took Sun hand in greeting even as the overly friendly Faunus pulled him in with the handshake to give him a hug that would have left many a person gasping for breath and Jaune was no exception, Sun was a marvel of physical fitness and while his clothing choices had matured over the years it was still obvious to anyone who met the Monkey Faunus that Sun was nothing but muscle. "It's good to see you Sun, I didn't know you were in Vale again or is this just another in between jobs trying to get back to Vacuo thing again?" Jaune asked as the two stepped apart.

"Nah, I'm done with Vacuo, nothing left for me there anymore, I was considering Mistral but figured Vale needed more help than anywhere else at the moment and aside from Sage most of my Team settled here so I figured why not me too." Sun said with mirth as he unshouldered his couple bags and tucked them into the storage compartment.

"Oh? I didn't know you had something keeping you in Vacuo."

"Yeah, my Grandma, great lady, she got really sick around eight years ago, I moved back to Vacuo to take care of her." Sun looked saddened at the obviously fond memory of his Grandmother.

Jaune and Weiss both froze for an instant both quickly putting the date in time to the same year Sun and Blake had mysteriously broken up.

"That's a shame man, anyone capable of raising you musta been a great woman." Jaune awkwardly patted Sun on the shoulder as he looked toward's Weiss, eyes visibly looking for help with the now awkward feeling situation as memories of the bet and the assumed reasons behind Sun and Blake's break up that had been discussed many times over the long years. Jaune searching eyes met with a blank look from Weiss who didn't appear capable or willing to help Jaune in this instant.

"No worries man, she went out peacefully which in our world is a real blessing in itself but enough about that, Grandma wouldn't want me to be sad so I'm trying not to be besides what do I have to be sad about, I'm basically going on a Camping trip with four of the coolest people I know!" Sun said with excitement shaking off the earlier atmosphere with ease.

Jaune sent Weiss another quick look and was glad to see Weiss respond this time, he wasn't sure if that was because of his look or Sun's statement but the White haired woman came to life in an instant.

"You don't have to act like that for our benefit Sun if you're uncomfortable around anyone feel free to say so, we can accommodate." Weiss felt her response fall flat as she spoke and judging by the confused look Sun sent her he misinterpreted her word's.

"Nah, it's alright, just have to take it one day at a time, Grandma wouldn't want me to do it any other way but I appreciate the gesture." Sun looked at Weiss who looked confused herself. "Really I'll be fine." Sun looked away to the sound of approaching footsteps.

* * *

 **All kinda's fun.**

 **Kinda finding it interesting to try and figure out how I want older versions of characters to act and what their roles would be after ten years. The main cast is fairly easy once I decided on what they would be doing but characters like Sun and Neptune the two that I have introduced are a bit tricky.**

 **Neptune, I settled on fairly quickly I saw him becoming a Huntsman solely because his cool persona felt it was the cool thing to do, and while he may be a great huntsman, (I'm unsure solely because the show shows us very little of him in that regard) I feel like with his personality as well as water phobia he would be the first or one of the first anyway to settle into a more average lifestyle.**

 **Sun, Sun I don't feel he would change, at least not on a surface level too much, he would keep (unless something major happened to him) a relatively happy and carefree attitude for his life, something I'm trying to reinforce by adding a none Canon Grandmother who pushed him to have and to keep his happy persona.**


	4. Chapter 4

Everyone stood rigidly in place watching the reunion on Blake and Sun.

The three observers each had their own thoughts going through their heads as they watched the pair approach each other.

Yang was bracing herself for an argument to happen between the pair yet at the same time she was excited to see how the meeting would play out, her Lilac eye's taking in the most subtle of movements.

Weiss watched with interest trying to ward off the feeling of panic from the newly revealed news of Sun's grandmother's very recent death, dreading what kind of emotional outburst that may occur if things became heated and was preparing herself to step in if things went badly.

Jaune gave the pair an appraising glance while he stood waiting to see how the interaction would play out, a new idea forming rapidly in his mind from Sun's recent news altering a long-held opinion he had on the breakup.

Seemingly in unison, all three observers realized they were behaving oddly themselves with the gathering and each quickly turned to some other task while closely watching the pair as they stood apart from each other clearly both hesitant to be the first to move.

Jaune went to the storage compartment and quickly made himself look busy with something, Yang approached as well handing him her bags.

"Hey Jaune."

Jaune noticed the subtle change in her morning greeting and couldn't blame her, the atmosphere felt too muted for her regular greeting. "Hey Yang, good to see you managed to make it here, early even." Jaune smiled half-heartedly as the atmosphere deepened and an awkwardness filled the air that no one could ignore.

"Yeah, didn't want to listen to Weiss berate me about punctuality again, feel I'm a little too old for that speech." Yang grinned trying to lighten the mood but the smile felt awkward and rapidly faded away.

"Since you feel that way it leads me to believe you could use a refresher in the lesson regardless of how early you arrived this morning." Weiss had reached the pair as well, sending a mild glare at Yang who just grinned back, this time the smile stuck and the three felt the mood lighten somewhat as they began to discuss random topics, no one really applied themselves to the conversation though it was simply a front so that they could observe the two Faunus's reunion that looked to be getting started.

* * *

The duo stood only a few feet apart, Blake had continued to close the distance as Yang left her side and Jaune and Weiss left Sun's. If either thought this was odd neither showed any sign towards that fact and stood for long minutes looking at each other as the three observers made idle conversation.

The stalemate of looking at each other awkwardly was broken when Blake closed the final few feet and embraced Sun in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother, she was a wonderful woman and I felt so terrible I couldn't make it to her funeral." Blake's voice cracked slightly as she tightened the hug.

"It's alright Blake, you knew her well enough that she wouldn't hold anything against you, and she would be mad to see you so upset about it." Sun returned Blake's hug, holding her as he felt a few stifled sobs escape from her gently rubbing her back in an effort to soothe her emotions while also fighting to repress his own as memories of his grandmother sought to overwhelm him as well.

"I know, but I should have been there for you at least." Blake looked up towards Sun her eyes wet.

"I know Blake, I know." Sun said soothingly as he kept the hug continued, he didn't know what to say and instead opted to simply continue trying to soothe Blake much like she would have tried to do for him if she could have made it to the funeral like he knew for certain she had wanted to.

Long minute's passed before the embrace finally split apart Blake quietly stepping away from Sun and quickly wiping at her eye's. "It's a good thing I don't normally wear makeup or I would be a mess right now." Blake smiled weakly as Sun stood beside her and threw an arm over he shoulder as the two moved to join the others by the bullhead.

* * *

The trio were caught off guard by the reunion, each had expected something emotional to happen but what they had observed made all three varying degrees of cautious towards the approaching pair. Jaune was the first to react in snapping out of his paused state and went back to appearing busy moving and rearranging the contents inside the Bullhead making space for the bags he could see Blake carrying.

Weiss and Yang did nothing, both struck dumb by the outcome of the reunion, the emotional hug and the soothing way Sun held Blake caused the pair to fumble mentally for a way to rationalize the meeting.

"Uh is something wrong you two?" Sun was the first to notice the awkward way the pair were staring at Blake and himself.

"What, no, nothings wrong, why would you think anything is wrong." Weiss snapped out of her mental fumbling as soon as Sun pointed out the two were acting strangely and spoke quickly in her defense.

"Yeah, what Weiss said, nothings wrong, everything is perfectly fine, why does something feel wrong to you?" Yang rallied herself and stood beside Weiss attempting to back up her White haired friend and make the situation more normal.

"Uh, no I, uh, what?" Sun took a step back confused by the rapid turnaround from the two women's confused expressions to the now apparently defensive air the two now held.

"No, this isn't happening, why are you two acting weird all of a sudden, does this have something to do with why Neptune acted oddly when we met with him to get me set up in the Vale Huntsmen registry?" Blake gave Weiss a cursory glance before her Amber eyes bored into Yang.

"What do you mean, Neptune wasn't acting weird at all." Yang's eyes shot around looking for an escape from this line of questioning before realizing the action just spoke of desperation and returned Blake's penetrating gaze with a simple blank look hoping to get the issue dropped if she just played dumb.

"Whoa, whoa I'm sure whatever it is is nothing." Sun seeing the growing tension moved to intervene. "If they don't want to talk about it who are we to force them too right." Sun sent a pleading glance to both women Yang stood with a blank look on her face and Blake's glare was going from annoyed to angry very rapidly.

"Give it up Yang." Jaune said with a sigh as he left the storage compartment and stood close to the middle of the two women staredown. "Blake, Sun, ever one of your friends is part of a long-standing bet on the reason or reasons behind your mysterious breakup." Jaune said flatly having no real way to put a positive spin on the truth he just revealed.

The entire area went quiet as the five present exchanged glances the only one person whose eyes didn't stray was Blake's, she kept her's leveled squarely on Yang.

"Well?" Blake spoke a single word, it was impossible to tell what emotion Blake was concealing behind the singular word as she spoke it in as monotone voice as she could.

Yang grimaced and looked away. "I'm sorry Blake, I should have thought of your feeling's but I let my eagerness to assuage my curiosity overrule my common sense." Yang shuffled awkwardly feeling the Amber eye's still looking at her. "But this is good right, you and Sun seem to be getting along well enough."

Blake grinned, her eye's flashing dangerously with mirth. "Sun and I never had a problem getting along, we split up because simply put, we just weren't the right people for each other."

"What?" Yang exclaimed loudly as Blake's grin grew and Sun joined in with a smile of his own. "If that's the case then why have you two never been in the same place for eight years, that can't just be simple coincidence." Yang looked between the pair annoyed at the grin's the pair wore.

"Yang's not wrong, it's hard to believe you ended your relationship so peacefully since no one present here has seen you two together in the time between then and now." Weiss found her voice and joined the conversation siding with Yang.

"She's not exactly wrong, I can see why people might believe we had a pretty big blowup." Sun said thoughtfully clearly trying to think of a time the two had been in the same place since there long ago breakup.

"Has it really been that long?" Blake mentally went over the time in her head and realized that her teammates were right, for as much as she still spoke with Sun on Scroll call's they legitimately hadn't been in the same place at the same time since shortly after they had broken up. "Wow, I guess that is true, we talk so frequently that it never really crossed my mind on how little we see each other."

"Hey no worries, we were both busy people."

"Before anyone points a hole in the story I guess it's safe to assume the funk Neptune said you were in recently was in regards to your grandmother's passing and not anything related to Blake." Jaune asked staring at Sun questioningly.

"Pretty much on point there Jaune, I moved back to Vacuo to take care of her shortly after Blake and I split up, she took several turns's for the worse over the years..." Sun stood stunstruck. "You mean all those times Neptune, Scarlett, and Sage came out to Vacuo they were trying to cheer me up cause of being broke up with Blake and not cause my Grandmother. God's I thought they were just trying to be polite and take my mind off of things, no wonder my Grandmother was never mentioned during any of those trips, they always assumed to was about Blake." Sun cupped his face with a single hand. "Those idiots."

The five Huntsmen stood awkwardly quiet for a few moments longer until finally, everyone broke out in varying degree's of laughter as the tension filtered out of the air, finally, once everyone calmed down Blake was the first to speak as she handed her bags to Jaune for him to store inside the Bullhead. "So, who win's the bet then? Did anyone even vote for a friendly breakup?"

"Do you even need to ask? Who among all your friends would be naive enough to guess the Breakup was a friendly one?" Weiss grumbled as she thought of the singular person who was about to win the long-standing bet.

"Glad to see that at least Ruby doesn't think Sun and I are horrible people that would have a violent breakup." Blake smiled thinking of the missing fourth from team RWBY.

"To be fair to the rest of us but we never pegged you for being the one responsible for the breakup Blake, most the bets that I remember had Sun doing something stupid and ruining the relationship for himself, If memory serves all of team SSSN even bet that somehow Sun fucked it up for himself." Yang chimed in happily glad that Blake wasn't only not upset with her but also was having fun with the subject.

"Those jerks, I'm going to make them pay for that." Sun fumed in mock anger towards his absent teammates.

"So all three of you bet that Sun messed things up between us?" Blake asked looking from Yang to Weiss and finally Jaune.

"My bet was split, one-half was that Sun messed up or alternatively Ghira threatened Sun in an extremely unsavory way." Yang said with a grin whilst shoot Sun a look in the eye and then immediately to his crotch the action clear to everyone why Yang imagined Ghira might have done to Sun.

"I put my Lien solely on Sun doing something that would have hurt you emotionally, personally I have never been more happy to be proven wrong." Weiss said with a smile that was clearly apologetic towards Sun, the Blonde Faunus merely waved off the look as unnecessary.

As the four talked about the bet Jaune returned from the Bullhead having securely stashed Blakes equipment. "Everything is stored and we are ready to go I guess."

"Are we? I seem to notice a lack of our pilot being here." Weiss looked around her expressions swapping to one of annoyance toward the absent Pilot, her mind already thinking of confronting the individual when they arrived.

"Weiss-cream, the pilot's been here the entire time." Yang's eye's flicked to Jaune who stood silently with a grin on his face.

"Wait, Jaune has a Pilot's license?" Weiss looked at the Blonde in confusion.

"Yep, have for about six years now." Jaune smiled, happy to show off his skill to two new people, Sun knew of the license because of the occasional job he ended up being on with his fellow Blondes over the years.

"But what about your motion sickness?" Weiss asked clearly apprehensive at having a pilot with such a well-known problem.

"Fun fact about that I learned long ago if you're the pilot for some reason you don't seem to suffer from the ill effects of motion sickness." Jaune said with confidence as he opened the cockpit door of the Bullhead and hopped inside. "Now come on get in, daylight's burning and we have a decently long flight ahead of us and a site to set up before nightfall." Jaune slid the door closed and in moments those outside could hear the familiar sounds of the Bullhead slowly coming to life.

"You heard the man, hop to it, everyone inside." Yang spoke loudly raising her voice to be heard over the gradual noise increase coming from the Bullhead's engines.

* * *

 **Mine construction site, Early evening.  
**

* * *

The Bullhead touched down gently in the massive cleared area that had been constructed by an earlier team weeks or months prior, before the Bullhead had come to a complete stop the door's to the passenger compartment slid open suddenly and the four occupants's leapt out, hastily dashing away from the landing craft and once clear of the craft the four began to scan the work site for any roaming Grimm that might have moved into the area during the absence of both the workforce and Huntsmen protector's.

Of the four watching for Grimm only one spotted anything and with a single agreed-upon signal Sun left his post and moved toward's the sole Grimm spotted and handily dealt with it.

By the time Sun returned to the Bullhead the craft had been powered down and Jaune was just hopping out of the cockpit.

"See what did I tell ya Weiss-cream, Jaune got us here in one piece and probably one of the smoothest rides ever." Yang grinned happily knowing that Weiss had no rebuttal since she had said something similar during the long flight and now she was using Weiss's own words to give Jaune the credit he was due since she doubted Weiss would offer it herself, and judging by the glower she was receiving from the White haired huntress she was confident she was right.

"I seem to remember you not being the most confident in my skill's yourself when I flew for you the first time." Jaune grinned as he reached the conversation.

"Can you blame a girl, you have to admit you had a pretty terrible track record when it came to Bullhead's at the time."

"Hah, yeah fair point." Jaune nodded to the freshly returned Sun. "Anything we should be worried about?"

"Nah, single Beowulf and pretty much a runt at that." Sun said in a nonchalant manner.

"Okay, well we should get to work then, Blake's a bit..." Jaune stopped speaking as Weiss cleared her throat loudly clearly intent on interrupting. "Yes, Weiss?" Jaune turned to the woman who as much as she wanted to interrupt his speaking now that she had his direct attention seemed confused suddenly. Jaune sighed inwardly thinking the weird changes that he had noticed from her this morning seemed to only be continuing and he wasn't exactly sure what to make of this newest one, the light airy voice from this morning had been odd enough but now this he wanted to shake his head and pretend like he hadn't noticed anything.

"I believe since this is my companies contract I should be in charge shouldn't I? I mean that's the normal procedure for these type's of contracts isn't it?" Weiss knew that in fact it was, if a Huntsman took a contract for a company that they also worked for with a group that were only contracted for the job then that Huntsman, unless otherwise decided would be placed in charge of the Team.

"Work's for me, Show's all your's Weiss." Jaune stepped back and watched Weiss with interest, he had had a quick conversation with Ren and knew that Weiss wasn't aware he was here to keep tabs on whether or not she actually relaxed.

"Thank you Jaune, um, right." Weiss paused for a moment mentally trying to put together what exactly needed to be accomplished in the immediate timeframe after landing at the mining site, but was drawing a blank, Jaune had been about to mention something specific toward's Blake before she had interrupted him and now she wondered what exactly that was. After a very prolonged, awkward pause Weiss shrugged in defeat. "Actually I think it would be better if someone else was in charge, after all, I'm not really sure of myself to be able to lead a huntsman job myself." Weiss looked awkwardly at the ground, embarrassed to have even brought up the subject.

"No worries Weiss, that's why protocols are in place." Jaune briefly touched her on the shoulder comfortingly, missing the reaction Weiss had to the light touch completely as he moved to stand in front of everyone again. "But protocol's are there and I guess I shouldn't have assumed I was in charge either, now that Weiss has stepped down does anyone have any endorsements to who should be in charge?"

"You." Yang said pointedly.

"I can agree with that choice." Blake said next.

"All your's man." Sun grinned glad to not have the responsibility.

"Alright then back to business. Blake's a bit rusty at the moment, Sun do you want to take her and do the first patrol around the site." Jaune looked to the male Faunus.

"Sure thing, come on Blake."

Jaune watched as the two Faunus quickly left the group and made for the closest perimeter of the camp, confident that Sun would get Blake up to speed on things.

"Weiss, I assume you know the layout of this site fairly accurately, take Yang with you and get the power started so we can refuel the bullhead. I'll stay here and start setting up camp."

"Sound's good Jaune, common let's go Weiss." Yang was about to leave but realized that without Weiss she had no idea where exactly to start looking for where the generators might be, the multiple shipping containers that housed all that stuff did not clearly indicate what was inside any of them.

Jaune smiled to himself as everyone spread out throughout the site going to their various jobs, once the two women took off Jaune turned to the Bullhead and began pulling out equipment intent on having the campsite constructed before at least Yang returned and attempted to help and in the process likely destroy another tent like she commonly did when left to herself to assemble the structure.

* * *

 **Morning, that next day.  
**

* * *

With practiced care Jaune stirred the campfire slightly, exposing and rotating the coals before gently easing the grate closed, with a new wave of heat coming from the fire pit Jaune placed several pans's over the fire and began to let them heat up as he went about preparing the items for breakfast. He had specifically taken the last watch to be the one up so that he could have breakfast ready to go when the other's began to rise.

He had forgotten to ask everyone's preference for Breakfast foods so he decided to go with the camping staple of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. All three of which he threw into their own separate pan and let cook slowly, keeping an eye on them and turning them as necessary while he sorted through the assortment of fruits they had brought along and smiling happily when he eventually found the item he was looking for, and with the honeydew melon in hand he moved to a cutting board and began slicing the melon into edible slices for those that wanted something sweet to go with their breakfast.

Behind him, Jaune heard the first zipper of a tent being opened and wasn't surprised to see Weiss as the first to wake up.

"That smell's delicious Jaune." Weiss said as she approached, stretching as she walked now free of the confinement of the tent.

"Thank you Weiss, a cook always enjoy's being appreciated." Jaune smiled, happy to see the new day hadn't altered Weiss and she was still being more casual around him. "Coffee is ready to go, it's nothing special just an instant blend though." Jaune said as he indicated a metal pot off to the side of the campfire furthest from the coals.

Weiss frowned already smelling the rather pungent aroma of the coffee and decided to pass on the black substance, grimacing even further as Jaune appeared to be carrying a cup of the stuff around as he cooked smiling happily to himself every time he took a sip clearly enjoying the flavor. "I'll stick to the other drinks we brought along, thank you though." With that, she headed off to the coolers where their perishable food were stored looking for anything other than the coffee Jaune seemed to be enjoying.

Alone again Jaune turned the bacon one last time smiling to himself as he silently judged to see if they were ready and adding some additional seasoning to both the eggs and hashbrowns pleased when the aroma changed just subtly enough to indicate it was the proper amount.

With a skill that career chef would be in envy of, Jaune moved the contents of the three separate pan's to a single large serving dish, somehow masterfully making sure the excess grease from the bacon did not transfer from the pan it was in to the serving platter and with that done Jaune quickly moved the entire platter to one of the many makeshift tables he and Sun had constructed the night before. Placing the tray on the table and then covering it to prevent bugs from getting at it Jaune bellowed loudly that Breakfast was ready, the loud shout was met with a mixed response.

Sun and Blake both appeared from their respective tents in varying degrees of awake, both clearly only part way conscious, still their immediate appearance was considerably better than Yang's as her tent remained silent even as the noise from the campsite grew as discussions began.

Weiss, Blake, and Sun all began to discuss waking up their missing fifth as Jaune sat calmly slowly eating his meal as he watched the tent, carefully noting the subtle movements of the fabric to try and glean what exactly Yang was planning.

"Earth to Jaune, hey pay attention."

Jaune looked away from Yang's tent as Sun grabbed his attention. "Huh, what is it?" Jaune looked at Sun then the two others behind him.

"Cool, now that I have your attention what should we do about Yang. I mean you work with here all the time, should we just let her sleep or go we go wake her up?" Sun said, clearly the spokesperson for this minor issue as both Weiss and Blake exchanged a single glance before returning to their breakfasts.

Jaune looked one final time at Yang's tent and smiled inwardly but keeping a neutral exterior expression. "I normally go and wake her up. How about you go do it for me since I'm already eating and you haven't made your plate up yet." Jaune said acting as casual as he could.

"Sure no problem." Sun ruffling his hair a little casually approached the tent, it was only in the briefest of instant's that once he got close enough to the tent did he realize he had been tricked. Yang's was the only tent where the door wasn't positioned to look towards the center of the camp site and as Sun rounded the corner he could see the door had already been opened, his response to that never reached his brain as instantly a powerful arm shot out from inside the tent and dragged him inside and a loud overly friendly voice echoed throughout the camp site.

"GOOD MORNING JAUNE."

A few very tense, silent moments pass as the entire site sat in silence waiting for Yang to realize the one who had come to wake her up wasn't Jaune but instead his fellow blonde Huntsman Sun.

"AAAAHHHHH! SUN, WHAT THE HELL, GET OUT OF MY TENT. WHERE IS JAUNE, I'M GOING TO KILL HIM." A legitimately angry sounding Yang yelled audibly from inside her tent as a very red-faced Sun fled from it as fast as he could, though not quick enough that when a heavy looking bag was thrown from inside it connected squarely into his back and sent him sprawling head first into the ground.

The camp sight erupted into laughter as Jaune burst out laughing much to the confused look's he received from Weiss and Blake and a little bit later as Sun returned to the campfire rubbing his back where the bag had connected, Sun's face was still a bright red in color, indicating to him that he was likely in at least some form of trouble when Yang would eventually leave her tent.

"Does she do that to you often?" Sun asked quietly as he sat down next to Jaune keeping his voice low so that the girls nearby wouldn't overhear.

"Eh, from time to time I guess, she likes to make me flustered and then she will bug me about it incessantly afterward." Jaune said with a smile, clearly enjoying the bit of turnaround he had managed to do.

Sun sat quietly, slowly eating his meal thinking over that last several minutes of his life. Namely his brief interaction with Yang in her tent and the state of undress she was in, namely that she wasn't just showing a little skin, but her entire upper body was exposed, and on top of that, the hug she had given him thinking he was Jaune had pulled him right in between the naked, heavenly mounds. "Are you two a thing?" Sun asked quietly looking pointedly towards Jaune.

"What? Yang and me. Hah not likely, she like's to tease me but I don't think she has ever shown herself to be legitimately interested in me once in all the years we have worked together." Jaune said with a smile as he got to his feet his plate being empty and he set about filling a plate for Yang with what was left on the serving tray before starting the process of cleaning up the mess from his breakfast preparations.

Long minutes passed and finally Yang emerged from her tent, her golden mane of hair was tied tightly in a singular braid all the way down her back, a process that must have taken her a considerable amount of time considering the amount of hair she had and the fact of how tightly it had been done. Sun watched quietly, making himself look small as Yang stormed past him to where Jaune stood casually doing dishes. Sun winced in sympathy as it looked like his fellow male was about to receive some form of retribution even if he didn't deserve it, but to Sun's surprise Yang stopped a few feet from Jaune and appeared to reconsider her intended course of action as her body language altered and instead of laying Jaune out with a punch she simply grabbed the plate that was clearly set aside for her and as she walked past Jaune all he received was a light punch in the shoulder and Yang walked away smiling joining the other women.

Sun sat in confusion as the morning gradually passed by, joining in topic's of conversation when asked about something but otherwise he spent the time quietly observing Jaune and as the morning slowly passed, Sun came to a conclusion that Yang was very interested in Jaune and typical to what he knew about the Blonde Knight, Jaune was oblivious to the attention he received from the Blonde boxer.

* * *

Throughout the morning and afternoon, the Campsite went for a collection of tents and a portable kitchen to something much more impressive. Yang, Jaune and Sun all being used to this type of job quickly turned the already fairly impressive setup at least as far as Weiss and Blake assumed from their limited field work into something far more state of the art than either expected.

Jaune set about turning the Bullhead into more than just a storage vessel for their equipment, after several hours of meticulous labor the Bullhead now doubled as a shelter from the elements if any day becomes too windy or a downpour where to start. The other side of the ship was screened off quite meticulously, so well crafted that Weiss even had no complaints when she tried to find a way to criticize the workmanship of Jaune's field shower. Once completed everyone was grateful to have it though no one more so than Weiss though as she was the first to give it a test run.

Sun went about moving the tents to a better position so that they wouldn't get flooded out or be stuck in direct sunlight either, he also made a point that Yang's tent was now facing the same direction as everyone else's grumbling to himself as he rubbed his sore back.

Yang took to landscaping, altering fundamentally how the campsite was structured as the fire pit was now sunk into the ground and with her immense strength knocked down and alter several tree to serve as extra furniture, turning an exceptionally large tree, with the help of Sun to carry it back to the campsite, into a much stronger more permanent table.

Weiss and Blake stood awkwardly trying to find some job in which to help, eventually, both settled on helping Jaune as his task seemed to require an extra set of hands to hold things and have two extra made the completion of the structure's even quicker.

As the morning eventually gave way to the afternoon and all three women had taken full use of the shower, Sun and Jaune neither feeling the need for one yet, sat around the completed campsite in a myriad of simple tasks.

"Alright, the site's setup and in pretty impressive time if I say so myself." Jaune looked around pleased with how the site looked. "Ok itinerary time," Jaune pulled out his scroll and looked over the details one final time as everyone found a seat nearby to listen, Weiss even pulled out her own scroll to read along with what Jaune was about to go over, Yang simply rolled her eyes at the action and leaned back comfortably whilst Blake and Sun did neither each sat patiently.

"I'm sure you have all read this by now so I will simply go over the important details. Grimm presence around the mining site is negligible, both teams here before us met with next to no Grimm aside from an occasional singular Beowulf or Ursa, so aside from regular patrol's I say we stick close to camp unless anything comes up. Next, the construction crew that's coming to setup and test the automated security system is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, the crew appears to be entirely civilian but are all experience in working outside the city so hopefully, we don't have to worry about any panicky newbies drawing in unwanted Grimm. Nothing else is overly important in here." Jaune closed his scroll while staring at the group. "Weiss, what sort of accommodations will the construction crew have?"

"They will be camping like us, the more permanent structures are only moved in after the security system is online." Weiss spoke matter of factly, like one would in a business meeting.

"Okay, plan for this afternoon and tomorrow before they arrive is to prepare another site for the workers. Yang, Sun, Blake you three can start on that, Weiss and I will take the first patrol." Jaune finished and people were already on their feet moving to their assigned jobs in a casual manner the trio discussing locations on where to setup the workers and Weiss was heading to her tent to grab her weapon and equipment.

* * *

 **Sun know's whats up.**

 **Also the swerve that there was no huge breakup for Blake or Sun to be upset with each other about was entirely intentional, kudos to those of you who guessed it back in the first chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

Jaune and Weiss slowly picked their way around the exterior of the work site. Jaune walking through the dense foliage purposefully making as much noise as possible intent on drawing in any errant Grimm in the area, a simple trick, but also a highly effective one. Only a few type's of Grimm aren't drawn in by such a cheap trick and those were typically the less common varieties.

Weiss walked parallel to Jaune on the machinery leveled ground of the work site, making sure to keep an eye both in front of and behind her partner in the task to make sure he wasn't about to be blindsided. When he had sent the other three away for a separate task Weiss had been secretly ecstatic to have an entire patrol with just the two of them and in the brief time she had taken to gather her gear from her tent she had planned out the entire conversation that she wanted to have and the expected outcome of the whole thing being the two in a relationship, the plan had been perfect, at least until Jaune explained how the patrol would work with him making a racket inside the tree line and her watching his surroundings from the safer open area.

She had considered trying to have the conversation regardless but after several attempts resigned herself and focused on the patrol, Jaune could barely hear her over the noise he was making and she didn't want to be responsible for Jaune being distracted and getting blindsided by a Grimm because they weren't paying attention to the task at hand. Many a veteran Huntsman had been laid low over the years by not giving the situation they were in the proper respect so the Patrol continued in a degree of silence.

Weiss wasn't worried, she would have plenty of time to find a free moment to talk with Jaune, after all they were out here for three weeks and she was confident that it was simply a matter of time.

The patrol eventually came to an end and not a single Grimm had been pulled in by the racket Jaune had kicked up, not that either was surprised, the reported threat level for this job had listed the Grimm as negligible in the area, so when the patrol turned up nothing neither of the pair was all that surprised.

"You managed to grab a pretty choice piece of property for this mine Weiss. Mountain's surrounding it on a couple sides, a nearby river that has a pretty decent current, any Grimm that aren't already in the area will have a hard time reaching this place that's for sure." Jaune said as the two turned toward's their campsite, Jaune's clothes covered in dirt and debris from the tree's and undergrowth he had marched through, his hand's moving, roaming his clothing checking himself for burr's and ticks that he undoubtedly picked up.

"Not just location, but if the sample's the geologist took from this site are even only half as good as the test indicated this Mine's output will easily double if not triple Dust production for the RFTDC." Weiss looked around at the site in pride and expectation before frowning. "I just wish it wasn't in such a beautiful location, it's a shame that this time next year this entire area straight over to the river almost will just be another ugly mine."

"Yeah, it is a shame, guess it's just part of the job though." Jaune could understand Weiss feeling about the area, not only was it secluded from the Grimm to an extent but it was also quite scenic to look at both from the air flying in and even more so from ground level looking up. Giving the area one more appraising glance Jaune tugged at one of the many straps that held his armor tightly to his frame, quickly undoing it as well as the several others, quickly making the armor loose enough to slide easily over his head. While he was at it the shirt he was wearing underneath came off right afterward as Jaune continued to inspect himself for insects.

"Yeah, part of the Job..." Weiss watched in rapt fascination as Jaune stripped right beside her as the two walked back to the campsite, her mind no longer in the conversation as she ogled the finely toned and tanned body Jaune hid under his clothing. Silently thanking any god that was listening, or responsible, her eye's moved toward's Jaune's lower half silently willing for the Blonde Knight to do the same to his lower half.

Jaune realized immediately that he was now alone as he finished inspecting his upper buddy, turning he saw Weiss a half step or more behind him with an embarrassed expression on her face. "Oh shit, sorry Weiss. I didn't mean to make you feel awkward." Hastily Jaune pulled his shirt back on. "Sorry again, I'm so used to being around Yang that I forget that some people aren't quite as comfortable around random stripping." Jaune smiled apologetically. "However I do need a shower so I best be off." With an innocent smile and a wave, Jaune jogged off ahead of Weiss to the campsite.

Long after Jaune had taken off to the campsite Weiss still remained standing where she had when Jaune noticed her staring like an idiot, typical to Jaune fashion he had assumed the wrong reason for her staring and hastily beat a retreat from the awkward situation. She had wanted to stop his retreat but her mind couldn't find the word's to get him to stop so filled was it with images of what she wanted to do with him at that moment in time. Reacting belatedly as she watched as Jaune move towards the shower he had constructed earlier that day that she was still standing in the same spot her mind jumped into action and she pretended to be carefully inspecting something just in case Jaune looked her direction and wondered what exactly she was up to.

* * *

 **The third day at the construction site, mid-afternoon.**

* * *

Sun watched the workers with mild interest as he forced himself to stifle a jaw snappingly large yawn as his subconscious made itself known that it found this job to be extremely boring, at least the part where he had to watch the construction workers, the social interaction with his fellow huntsmen more than made up for the long boring hours during the day. The fact that this was only the first day of the actual assignment was pushed to the far reaches of his mind as he willfully tried to forget that fact and find something more entertaining to think about. As luck would have it his eye's spotted something that managed to cause him to smile.

Across the construction area Yang stood opposite him and while he knew himself to be bored he expected a similar reaction for the Blonde Brawler, however even from this distance he could tell Yang wasn't bored, instead she was annoyed. The source of the annoyance was obvious, the youngest male worker had seen Yang and immediately become smitten, Sun didn't blame the guy, Yang was a beauty.

The long shift was made easier as Sun gained constant amusement every time the young man went out of his way to try and impress someone, who even from the distance, Sun sat could tell had zero interest at all, not that the man seemed to realize that.

With the shift ended and the workers returning to their own campsite, Sun hopped down from his perch and started toward his own being joined by Yang quickly as she escaped the unwanted attention of the young workman.

"So, how was that for you?" Sun asked with a wry smile as he tilted his head in the direction of the worker she was fleeing from.

"Ugh, don't get me started. This is going to be a long job if he doesn't get the hint that I am not, and will not, be interested in him." Yang rolled her eyes and pointedly refused to look in the direction Sun had tilted his head, positive that doing so would only ignite the young man to redouble his efforts to impress her.

"You know, you could solve that by just being more forward with Jaune, well more forward than what you did the first day. I'm sure the young guy would get the hint and leave you alone."

"I think you have the wrong idea about what I want from Jaune," Yang wagged her eyebrows and grinned. "I'm looking for some satisfaction or release. But not from him, I only tease Jaune because he is safe and he know's I don't mean anything by it, not like this." Yang's voice became sultry to drive home the point. "For that matter, I shouldn't have kicked you out of my tent so quickly. You caught me off guard if I hadn't been so surprised I would have invited you to stay." Yang kept her voice low and melodious as she stepped in closer, sliding a hand around Sun's waste.

"Wow, okay, a little too forward," Sun spoke hastily as his face reddened in embarrassment. "I'm afraid I have to turn you down, whether the offer was serious or not." Sun quickly stepped away from Yang's arm that was encircling his waist.

"Oh?" Yang's eyes flashed with surprise and interest. "Now what could be the reason behind turning something as great as this down." Yang made a motion to her entire form making sure that Sun took it all in.

"I met someone," Sun responded his face still a light red as Yang leaned in close probing for a lie while somehow making the act seem seductive. "Nothing serious yet, we have only had a couple date's but I don't want to mess it up." Sun said with an almost Jaune like panic in his voice as he tried not to look toward's Yang any further.

In an instant, Yang reverted to a casual posture with her hand's behind her head, though she was wearing a rather frightening grin. "Okay."

"What? Okay just like that and you drop it, no follow-up questions?" Sun stood dumbfounded as Yang continued toward's the campsite, when his mind caught up to what had happened Sun was forced to Jog a short distance to catch up with Yang.

"Hey, I'm not pushy, and besides, truth or lie Yang Xiao Long is not a homewrecker, you're in a relationship so you are off limits, though I do reserve the right for teasing." Yang winked as the two made their way up the final hill to bring them within eyesight of their campsite.

"So out of curiosity, if your just teasing Jaune but would seriously go all the way with me, why is your fanboy going ignored." Sun asked inquisitively.

Yang sighed. "A plethora of reasons, the biggest is Hero worship, he looked at all five of us like he couldn't believe he was meeting us, they all did but his eye's lingered, I have no interest in anyone who want's to be with me on name alone. So right there you have the biggest reason, I could go into more detail if you're interested, like how it feels for a woman with Aura to go to bed with a man without, it's a pretty sad experience for the Women." Yang joked as she spoke but from the look, Sun caught in her eye it was also was one of experience.

As the two closed the final distance to the campsite Sun mulled over the knowledge he had just gained from Yang that would explain why Female Huntsmen had next to no interest in male civilians, Aura and Stamina.

* * *

 **The Ninth day at the Construction site.**

* * *

The day after the construction team arrived the Huntsmen found that outside of patrol's they had nothing to really do so they took to sparing and training to kill the time between patrols and meals. Being in the field meant the spars were tame in comparison to what might happen elsewhere. A spar in any of the huntsman facilities throughout any city might have the finishing Aura set at around fifteen percent. Out in the wilderness, most huntsmen who took to sparing to kill the time set the safety limit at around seventy percent remaining Aura, just enough to dip into the yellow but not low enough to put you in a dangerous position if Grimm showed up.

Jaune had paired up with Blake at her request early on, taking up his offer to help with her swordsmanship. While Yang general sparred with Sun, with Weiss refraining from the event's almost entirely solely on the premise that no one present was a suitable partner for her and she knew it so rather than trying to take part she took up the position of an impartial judge to whichever pair was currently engaged, at this moment that being Jaune and Blake.

Jaune brought his sword up and parried Blake's quick overhead strike as he brought his sheath around, using it as a second blunt weapon leaving the shield compacted inside the meeting Blake's own scabbard as she tried to use it to get under his guard. Jaune wasn't surprised when Blake immediately retreated instead of trying to get past his guard.

Jaune had praised Blake for how little her skill had diminished over the years in one of their original bouts. She was as agile as ever and as far as he could tell just as quick as well, however she lacked stamina, the current bout hadn't even reached five minutes yet but Blake's breath was already coming in quick gasp's as she struggled to catch her breath as she was forced to blink rapidly to keep sweat from entering her eye's.

Just as Blake was about to launch into another attack a large white Glyph appeared between the sparring duo and Weiss called the contests over for today, Neither participant had any complaints, Blake was exhausted and sagged to the ground immediately after the glyph had appeared, remaining there until Jaune had collected a towel and water bottle for his exhausted opponent.

"I said it early on but I feel I need to repeat myself, your skill is impressive as usual." Juane accentuated the statement by rubbing his cheek that was sporting a bright red welt, had his Aura not been there to soften the blow he was confident his jaw and cheek would have been shattered by the hit, now at worst he would sport an ugly welt for a couple hours while his Aura worked to remove any traces of that.

Blake didn't respond immediately, having taken the water bottle greedily and alternating between mouthfuls of the cool liquid and then pouring some over her head trying in desperation to cool her overheated body down to a mixture of success. Eventually, she found the air necessary to speak. "I appreciate the praise but there is no getting around it, I'm a long ways away from being able to beat you or anyone in a fight right now, no matter how skilled I may or may not be." Blake gave a weak smile as she struggled to her feet accepting Jaune's outstretched hand gratefully.

"Let's get you back to the campsite." Jaune stepped back from Blake but hovered nearby to make sure her tired legs would carry her the short distance. "Weiss, I'm going to get Blake back to the campsite then start working on Supper, do you want to grab Sun or Yang and do the next patrol?"

"Sure, I'll go grab Yang, give her an excuse to get away from her overzealous fan." Weiss joked as she turned away from the campsite heading towards the sounds of construction where she knew she would find the pair of Blonde's as they made sure no Grimm managed to sneak toward's the site and attack the workers. While she smiled to Jaune as she walked away inwardly she frowned at another lost opportunity to speak with him in private, the long day's out in the wilderness should have provided her with innumerable opportunities to speak in private with the Blonde Knight yet somehow it hadn't happened yet. Jaune was busy every day whether dealing with issues with the construction crew or helping Blake get back in fighting form he was constantly surrounded by people and while she couldn't fault him for being busy or occupied she was gradually losing her patience and wanted to have her private chat with him sooner rather than later.

* * *

Yang rolled her eye's as the overzealous construction worker walked past her for the twentieth time this hour, the kid had a crush on her from the moment his Bullhead landed and they had lined up for introductions, it had been almost sweet and she considered having some fun with the boy, at least until she saw the look behind his eye's, after that single look she became instantly disinterested in him entirely, hero worship got old long ago and nowadays even a hint of it caused her to shun those she saw it from.

The young man didn't know that he had no chance though and sought to impress her with some admittedly juvenile antic's much like a teenager trying to impress his crush might do.

Yang rolled her shoulders working out several stiff kinks that had developed in the time she had sat here 'guarding' the workers. Sighing blissfully in relief as one of the rotations she felt a quick pop and the stiffness went away with a rush of endorphins. "Wish I could get that reaction consistently, might enjoy sitting still more often then." Yang said to herself as no one was within earshot of her currently. Getting to her feet she proceeded to continue rolling her stiff joints noticing Weiss heading toward her meaning it was time for another Patrol and it looked to be her and Weiss with the honor this time. Reaching an arm above her she waved it multiple times until she saw Sun repeat the signal notifying him that she was leaving her post, before she had hopped down from her perch Sun was already moving to a different location that would provide him a better vantage to overlook the workers as well as put him much closer to the tree line and any apparent danger that might emerge from it.

With a simple hop, Yang landed softly on the ground just in time for Weiss to arrive and for her to spot the annoyed scowl that currently marred the woman's face. "Do I even want to know what that scowl is about?" Yang said matching Weiss's pace as the two made their way to the tree line.

Weiss sighed, clearly trying to let go of the emotion. "No, you don't have to worry about anything and that was just me being annoyed at something stupid, just ignore that." Weiss shook her head scattering the last few annoyed thoughts and focusing on the patrol.

Both women walked close to the tree line, neither entering it and making noise like Jaune or Sun were prone to do, not that any noise they could make would be distinguishable from the din coming from the construction equipment currently, the amount of noise they produced setting up an electronic system baffled all the Huntsmen present but considering none knew what the system entailed, not even Weiss, they simply shrugged and provided the security that they were being paid for and let the worker's do their job's.

"So I take it Blake ran out of steam again." Yang said making idle conversation as the two made the long slow trip around the site.

"Yes, though before that she did prove that she is at least as skilled as she ever has been, much to Jaune's regret." Weiss said remembering the solid strike that Jaune had taken to the face earlier, as she retold the fight to Yang who smiled at the point of Jaune's unfortunate blow to the face.

"Good thing he has all that Aura, if the hit was hard enough to leave a visible welt on Jaune it probably would have broken something on a normal Huntsman." Yang said rubbing her own cheek imagining the seriousness of the blow.

"What do you mean? It's not uncommon to have mild injuries through Aura, a welt shouldn't be considered all that severe."

"No, I suppose you're right, and considering you haven't ever worked with Jaune you probably don't know how much more dense his Aura is." Yang spoke in an off-hand manner as she inspected the tree line for any abnormalities. "As you know Jaune doesn't have a Semblance, instead he has more Aura than anyone I have ever come across. I pretty good deal on Jaune's behalf, all things considered, I have met enough Huntsmen with half as much Aura as Jaune maybe even less than that and they also have a Semblance that is just useless." Yang shrugged remembering a few Huntsmen she had met over the years that just had comically bad Semblances.

"So what, having more Aura wouldn't prevent injuries it just means you could take more punishment." Weiss stated confused as to why Yang seemed to assume Blake had done something impressive leaving a visible welt on Jaune.

"Look I don't really understand it either, all I know is I have seen Jaune tank hits that would lay up any other Huntsman, myself included in a hospital bed for weeks with barely any ill effects. Jaune can't explain it either, at some point his Aura just became more durable than others. Ask him yourself if you're interested but he doesn't have any better control of his Aura than you or I but his is way harder to get through than anyone else's." Yang said with a sort of finality that she was annoyed with this topic and wanted it to move on to something more interesting.

During the rest of the patrol, the topic's of conversation became much more mundane, discussing simple topic's about day to day life. As the pair returned to the area where they had met to begin the patrol immediately a youngish looking construction worker made his presence known by shouting a loud response to thin air. Yang rolled her eye's in disinterest while Weiss simply smirked at the young man's desperate antic's to get some form of positive response from Yang.

While Yang had no interest in the young man she wasn't as cruel as to crush him emotionally, at least not while they were out in the wilderness, she did however make it clear that she had no interest in dealing with the man which unfortunately had the opposite effect she had hoped for with him redoubling his efforts to impress her.

"Weiss, would you mind taking the rest of my shift?" Yang asked with an annoyed expression on her face towards the young man who no doubt thought he looked charming and strong as he carried what most might consider a heavy load.

Weiss smirked sending a casual glance back to the campsite to see if Jaune was potentially free currently and when she saw him clearly having a rather animated conversation with someone through his scroll she looked back to Yang. "Yeah, no problem."

"Thank's Weiss I owe you one." With a quick wave, Yang was already heading toward the campsite.

Turning Weiss watched with a guilty smile as the young man looked shattered that the object of his affection had left, without a single parting glance or wave. With a casual leap, enhanced by a small glyph, Weiss stood on the same high perch Yang had occupied earlier. "I really should get back to the gym myself, I shouldn't need dust to make such a small jump." Weiss frowned at the relatively small distance of eight feet that at one point in time she could have easily made and surpassed but now required a Dust Glyph to make.

* * *

"Who was that?" Yang asked as Jaune eventually closed his scroll still smiling from the conversation, she had guessed early on that the voice on the other end was one of Jaune's many sisters but with the amount he had and their frightening similar personalities in some cases, it was hard to tell.

Grinning Jaune moved to sit in the chair directly beside Yang leaning in close.

Yang froze for a moment unused to the uncommon action from her partner. "Jaune? What are you doing?"

"Here look at this." Jaune slid his scroll into Yang's hand's not noticing her question or the closeness of their bodies. With a deft swipe of a finger, a picture appeared on Jaune's scroll and his smile grew even wider.

Yang felt the closeness of Jaune and much to her relief was glad Jaune didn't even notice her initial awkward reaction, focusing on the Scroll she immediately realized the source behind Jaune's excitement. In the first image was a set of distinctly Arc looking infants. The newly born twin's both already had heads full of straw blonde hair and the same sapphire eye's that all the Arc siblings shared. The only thing in the picture that distinctly not an Arc feature was the Faunus traits each child had inherited from their father it also gave away which of Jaune's sisters it was.

Sienna, one of Jaune's younger sisters had given birth early to a healthy set of Fox Earred Faunus twins. The campsite was silent, or as silent, as it could be with Jaune's current inability to sit still with the news that he was an Uncle again for the dozenth time.

Yang had gone through this exact scenario a few times already, his siblings all being old enough to begin starting families and Yang had to admit the Arc's were good at procreating, it seemed like multiple times a year Jaune would receive call's while in the field to be blessed with the news that his family grew by another number, what typically followed was a very energetic Jaune as he would be unable to sit still for the remainder of the job which typically were short affairs, this time, however, he was stuck in the wilderness for at least another week, most likely longer.

"Save some of that energy for later Juaney-boy, I hate to be the reminder of bad news since I know you usually take off to see your siblings every time this happen's but your gonna need a little patience this time." Yang said apologetically as she handed him his scroll back.

"Gah, you're right." Jaune looked at his scroll as if defeated by the knowledge. "This is going to be a painfully long job now." Jaune said, clear depression hinting in his voice as his eyes swept the Worksite, more specifically the greater two-thirds that the construction team hadn't even touched yet.

"Wow, that's a little rude." Yang said grinning as she slugged Jaune in the arm knocking him over.

"Ouch, point taken. Still, this is going to feel like an eternity for me, this will be the first time I don't make it within a day to see my new family members in person." Jaune wistfully sighed in regret over the knowledge.

"I'm sure Sienna and the rest of your sisters will understand, and if they don't I'll just take a page out of Nora's book for dealing with people and offer to break their legs." Yang grinned mischievously as she helped her fellow blonde to his feet. "Now go share the news with Blake, I'm sure she will be happy to see the new Faunus Arc's" Yang had barely finished talking before excitement flashed in Jaune's eyes and he moved toward's Blake's tent that she had only recently been seen entering after her shower.

As Jaune left her side Yang felt the warmness from his body disappearing, her mind going to another conversation she had with Sun day's earlier, at that point she had spoken what she believed to be the truth, she enjoyed teasing Jaune but he didn't interest her the way she wanted a man to interest her, now however, she paused to reconsider that belief, his closeness just now felt like something she desired to repeat, only with him as the instigator again.

* * *

 **Twelfth Day at the construction site, Late morning.**

* * *

Blake sat on the ground head between her legs trying desperately to keep her breakfast inside herself. Jaune's workout that she had begun copying to start slowly rebuilding her stamina was having the non uncommon side effect of making a person want to either pass out or throw up, neither of which she had done so far during all the day's she had done it so far and she didn't intend to start that today either if she could help it.

Long minute's passed where she finally caught her breath and the painful feeling of wanting to vomit gradually subsided did she eventually look up from the ground and watched with no small amount of envy as Jaune, Sun, and Yang completed another set of the exercises. Each one was doing a different set of drill's something that was more readily suited to their own combat style's.

The most recent set was the standard ending point for Sun and Yang, the two being next to be in order to guard the workers, with the pair leaving to collect their gear and relieve Weiss who had been insistent on having the earliest watch, no one quite managed to figure out why but since it allowed the four others a longer time for their exercises no one contested the issue.

With Sun and Yang leaving she watched a Jaune approached her to continue her training progress, or more likely as her shaky legs indicated probably have a short break, as while she had made it to her feet the world around her still swam slightly as a short but powerful bout of lightheadedness struck her.

"Whoa, careful there Blake." Jaune hastily moved the last few feet toward's Blake as he noticed her sway slightly.

Blake held her arm out casually waving off Jaune's support proving right afterward the lightheadedness was only temporary. "Thank you Jaune but I'm fine and ready to continue." To further try and show that she was ready she hopped in place a few times casually stretching her legs to warm them up as they had cooled down while she dealt with her earlier problem.

Jaune scrutinized the Raven haired Faunus for a short moment before grinning. "Nope, we're done for the day. Come on lets head back to camp." He did not wait for her reply before turning and heading up the incline back toward the bullhead, clearly intent on reaching it before Blake and claiming the shower for himself.

"Hey, I'm still good to continue, get back here." Blake watched the departing figure a mild expression of annoyance on her face, the expression didn't last as she didn't have the energy to be annoyed. Taking a much slower pace back to the campsite Blake crested the hill just in time to have her arms stuffed with a towel and hygiene products as Jaune wordlessly tilted his head towards the ready and prepared Shower area, clearly leaving the first use to Blake as in a moment he was sitting comfortably reclined in one of many folding chairs, a book she didn't recognize in his hands. "You know you could have had the first shower, I'm fine with waiting."

"I'm sure you are," Jaune said in an off-hand manner as he turned a page. "I'm in no rush though, and besides your the only one who is still humoring my overexcitement with a smile." Jaune raised a single eyebrow looking at Blake his eye clearly delighted.

"If you really want to pay me back for that, not that you need to of course," Blake added hastily. "You could stop torturing me and cook that fish you bought and have been torturing me with every night you decided to cook and leave it out." Blake said with a smile as she stepped into the shower area, securely pulling the curtain closed behind her.

Jaune sat quietly staring blankly at the page of his book for a long moment before getting to his feet headed toward's the cooking area mentally going over the different recipe's he could do with the ingredients he had on hand for the fish, smiling the entire time as he began writing down what he had to work with to see what he could present tonight for supper.

* * *

Blake resisted the growing urge to move closer to the campfire, the aroma coming from where Jaune stood watching the various tin foil wrapped packages atop the fire was proving to be far too distracting for her to focus on anything aside from the heavenly aroma. Her book was held in a loose facsimile of reading, no page had been turned in long minutes and her eyes had given up trying to grasp the contents of the page she was on any further.

The cooking process had been easy to ignore up till just minutes earlier, the contents of the foil packages had been so tightly wrapped that no odor had escaped until very recently when Jaune began opening them one after another. The scent had been strong and compelling but all to brief, as soon as it had been present it had vanished as the cook quickly wrapped each package closed after the contents had been given a quick visual inspection, hiding all but the faintest traces of aroma that had driven her to distraction.

The other's seemed uninterested in the smell aside from a few comments, each had easily returned to whatever task that had been doing before, Balke thought this was a grave disservice to both the food and the chef, to produce such a smell and likely an even greater flavor should earn Jaune each of their undivided attention, as it didn't Blake struggled to mimic the others even if she wanted to stand next to Jaune solely for the fact that she believed he would smell heavenly at the moment.

* * *

Jaune stared at the remnants of the meal he had cooked more than a little shocked that the large amount of food had been consumed completely, he had cooked every piece of fish he had brought and expected a fair amount of leftovers that was actually going to be repurposed into breakfast in the morning.

Looking towards the offending party he couldn't say he was overly upset, Blake had enjoyed it to a frightening level, so much so that he had a brief instance of fear that Blake might react in a similar way that her mother had. As luck would have it, Blake had induced a food coma on herself and was now tightly wrapped in a blanket in front of the fire sleeping off the meal contentedly much to Jaune's relief as unconsciously he rubbed the back of his head where long ago he had been struck by an Auraless Kali Belladonna.

* * *

 **Sixteenth Day at the Construction site, Midday.**

* * *

"You know this place would be a nice place to retire to when I eventually get too old for this kind of work." Jaune said to himself in a low grumble, annoyed at the current task that had been occupying the five huntsmen for the last two days. Reaching up to his shoulder he placed his thumb securely on the device attached there. "Blake, Sun are you two having any better luck than I am?" Jaune asked loudly through the short-range radio he wore as he looked around the boring forest keeping his eyes open for any Grimm, a few moments of silence pass before a static-filled *SHRK* came from his shoulder.

"Nothing to the west and I'm at another river crossing." Sun responded clear annoyance and disgust in his voice having been forced to find a way to cross the river multiple times already.

"Nothing east either, also I can't go any further I have a sheer cliff face that even if I could scale there would be no way to get a Grimm down." Blake said clearly winded from the long day walking through the forest.

"Okay, I'm calling it for the day, head back to the construction site." Jaune said half-heartedly as he turned to the direction that would lead him back to the work site. The security system had been completed for two days now and it needed a live test before anyone was allowed to leave, normal circumstances would have provided multiple opportunities to lure a Grimm or two into the perimeter for an easy test but the lack of Grimm in the area was causing a simple ten minute test and a few hours diagnostic on the system by the technicians to take multiple day's as the Huntsmen were entirely unable to find a single Grimm anywhere in the vicinity of the site, even after foraging into the wilderness for several miles in every direction had turned up nothing, not even tracks.

Their last hope was that Yang managed to find something to the South, the direction was the least hospitable as it quickly turned into a steep uphill climb into the mountain that stood behind the work site, not only was it a laborious climb, something in the area messed with the radio's they used to communicate and whoever went that direction was essentially cut off from the others.

Yang had opted for the route with little contention, it made sense for her to take it, she could handle the assent with greater ease than most and getting down would require nothing more than liberal use of Ember Celica to slow her fall.

Crossing the distance toward the work site in half the time it took to travel away Jaune found himself paused by the solo river crossing he was forced to make if he wanted to reach or leave the site on foot. With a sigh Jaune planted one foot in the cold water followed by his other, the current was nothing impressive where he chose to cross but the water was almost painfully cold, as quickly as he could Jaune stood on the other bank of the river entirely drenched as he was forced to swim at the deepest point, not an easy feat no matter how good of shape he was in, his armor, weapon and clothing all working in combination to make the short swim exhausting but it was over and he now sat uncomfortably on the other bank wringing out his soaked shirt and socks as he wiped as much water as he could from his weapon and armor not wanting to leave it to dry naturally and negatively affect the metal.

Leaving his sock's off Jaune slid his feet into his still wet shoe's squirming uncomfortably at the sensation, gathering up his gear he chose to leave both his shirt and armor off, instead, walking back to the site with his armor items placed inside a makeshift bindle from his removed shirt and Crocea Mors. Slinging the Bindle over his shoulder Jaune continued to the site his firearm kept at the ready just in case.

As the distance melted away Jaune heard the at first quiet crack of a weapon he knew all too well now, Ember Celica was being fired. At first, he assumed the shots were from Yang giving up on her search as well and was descending the slope, however, the firing sounded off, pausing to listen Jaune noted that each glove was being fired separately instead of in unison, something Yang wouldn't do if she was stopping a fall.

"Everyone, sound's like Yang started a party, everyone back to camp." Jaune dropped the radio he had hastily pulled from his Bindle on top of the discarded carrying device, sticking his sidearm into its holster he withdrew Crocea Mors leaving his armor and shirt behind racing toward the site as the firing he heard from Ember Celica increased in intensity.

Rushing through the tree line Jaune was able to gather a relatively clear picture of what sort of conflict was underway as his vision became unobstructed as he reached the site.

Yang had stumbled into a pack of Beowulf's, a fairly large one too it seemed, as he approached counting roughly twenty of the beast still standing and a least half that many again as greasy dissolving puddles on the ground.

The fight was going comically bad for the Wulf's as any the strayed too close to Yang were swiftly and permanently dealt with as she continued to make her way to the perimeter of the site and give the security system a test run.

Arriving ahead of Yang and stopping beside Weiss who was watching expectantly as Yang gradually closed to distance toward the site.

"She's taking her sweet time getting here." Jaune slouched over feeling winded with all the recent exertion.

"I think she's trying to keep at least a few of the Grimm alive, every smear of Black you see is the result of a Grimm throwing itself off the cliff in an attempt to reach her." Weiss spoke watching the chase with interest, her rapier in hand and the Dust chamber full and ready to intervene if Yang needed any assistance.

"So we're not dealing with the most intelligent Grimm in existence today." Jaune shook his head looking to each smear and wondered how some Grimm managed to live long enough to develop any level of intelligence if they could be so suicidal. "Shame I left my gear behind for this." Jaune said with a hint of regret as he thought of the trek he would need to make later to collect his items again.

Turning from watching the comical chase that was unfolding between Yang and the Grimm Weiss looked at Jaune and quickly looked away glad the blonde hadn't been looking at herself when she did so as she immediately felt her face flush at the exposed upper body as well as the soaking wet Jeans that left little to her imagination as the normally loose fitting Jean's Jaune wore clung to his legs. "Well thing's here will go smoothly without you, maybe you should go back and collect your things right now." Pointedly looking away now, Weiss spoke attempting to sound casual.

"Nah that can wait," Jaune said looking not at Weiss but at one side of the construction site as he spotted an equally dressed down Sun emerge from the tree line. "Good Sun's back, I'm going to meet up with him and help Yang push the Grimm into the perimeter. You remember your part right, Weiss?"

"Yes." A word and a nod was her only response thankful her part of the plan they had laid out earlier was taking her flushed countenance away from the source of her embarrassment and towards the fight, not that any real fighting was likely to happen unless the security system failed completely, she was simply to freeze a few of the Grimm in place for additional tests if the technicians found any flaw's in the system they had set up.

* * *

 **Eighteenth Day, Vale, Late Evening.**

* * *

The Bullhead touched down gently on the clean landing pad, the pilot wasting no time in powering down the craft, working through the shutdown checklist with a practiced ease, making sure everything was in the proper position so that whoever would deal with the maintenance of the machine in the morning would find it ready for them.

Stepping out of the cockpit Jaune saw his four companions had already extracted the entirety of the cargo hold themselves in their personal searches for their own belongings, he cringed at the unorganized fashion the majority of the gear had been pulled out and stacked, he might have even been bothered by this if his plan wasn't to leave this for another day. Disappearing into a nearby hanger and returning with a large dolly, Jaune, with the help of Sun and Yang loaded and secured the equipment onto the cart which Jaune then tucked into the Hanger to be dealt with later.

"Hey Yang, wanna do me a favor and deal with that and the contract turn in for me?"

"No problem Jaune." Yang said as she stifled a yawn which spread almost instantly as Sun and Blake mimicked the action. "I'll take care of it in the morning, I assume I won't be seeing you for a few days."

"No probably not, give me a week and I'll be back I'm sure. If anything changes I'll get ahold of you by Scroll." Jaune said stifling his own yawn trying to unsuccessfully cancel the contagious effect.

"No worries, take your time and have fun." Yang said with a wave as she turned to leave.

"It was good seeing you guys again but I should be going too." Sun said as he hefted his few bags and wandered off in a direction that Jaune knew didn't have an exit and was confident the Faunus was about to get himself in trouble if he was caught but chose to not point that out.

"I guess I'll see you when you are back as well, I talked it over with Yang and I'm going to be tagging along with her for awhile and I guess by extension you." Blake smiled and turned to leave herself jogging the few feet to catch up with Yang, the two starting a relatively loud conversation that could be heard for a decent distance.

"So..., what are you going to tell Ren?"

Jaune said nothing and instead hefted his few personal bags before turning to look at Weiss. "How long did it take you to figure it out that I was supposed to be watching you and report back to Ren." Jaune said with a simple smile as he hefted one of Weiss's larger bags.

"The morning Ren suggested I go on the job," Weiss said with a grin, glad Jaune wasn't trying to hide the information. "It was fairly obvious, Ren suggested a little too strongly that I should go, so much so that I would have had to been blind to miss the real point of him wanting me to go."

"So is that why you started to relax around me? Cause that was a rather abrupt change." Jaune spoke cringing mentally, paranoid that the reminder might set her off and revert her back to how she was before the job.

"No, Nora is responsible for that." A deep smile crept onto Weiss's face which was purposefully kept turned away from Jaune as she lifted the last of her own bags, readjusting them to carry comfortably. "She filled me in on a little detail that I hadn't known about you that allowed me to get past some personal reservations."

"Reservations? With me? I'm sorry Weiss but I don't remember doing anything to you that would cause you to have problems dealing with me." Jaune said in a sad voice, upset that his friendship been on hold with Weiss for so long because of something he couldn't remember.

"It's not your fault, well not directly anyway." Weiss said keeping her smile hidden, enjoying the conversation and what she was leading it toward. "I've decided to let the moment be forgotten and start over again, hopefully, this time things will be better for us." Weiss looked away from Jaune, instead glancing at her car which the pair were rapidly approaching.

"I would enjoy being able to have more conversation's like this again," Jaune said as he lifted the bag of Weiss's he had been carrying free of his shoulder to more readily hand it to her when they reached the vehicle. "Though I am curious about what kind of thing I might have done to make you so awkward for so long, feel's like it would be a funny story."

"Oh? Are you sure you want to know." Weiss opened her trunk and began arranging items inside. "What if it make's things awkward again, we could just as easily go back to both being awkward around each other only this time a simple conversation with Nora probably wouldn't be able to fix it." Weiss altered her smile working hard not to betray any emotion as she turned to take the sole bag Jaune held out to her.

"You do have a valid point, maybe it would be better if I simply ignored this whole reversal of fortune and count it as a blessing. Jaune Arc motto, Ignorance is Bliss." Jaune said with a smile as he watched Weiss close the trunk of her vehicle. "Actually, I think you're right, maybe it is best if I just drop this and count my blessing's." Jaune stood resolutely for a moment mentally weighing his decision. "Yeah, I think I'll do that. Maybe we can talk about this another time Weiss, I'll be seeing you." With a casual wave, Jaune turned to leave.

Weiss couldn't believe what she was witnessing, she had been being subtle, but only barely, she felt she had dropped enough hints that even the oblivious Mr. Arc should have caught on, and for a moment at the end there she thought he had.

Now though he had said his farewell and left, for a moment she assumed that was a joke, also that at any moment he would turn around with a grin that would tell her he knew all along what he was doing but the turn never came.

As Jaune took his fifth or sixth step Weiss knew that wasn't going to happen and on Jaune's seventh Weiss moved her first step intent on stopping his leaving.

* * *

 **First Morning after Mission.**

* * *

Jaune opened his eye's blearily staring at the ceiling, the sleep in his eye's causing the ceiling to seem farther away than he remembered it to normally be and the fact his single central light fixture was absent also went unnoticed.

With a practiced ease, he reached over to preemptively turn off his alarm clock always preferring to wake up naturally. As Jaune shifted his weight to reach for the device he found he was in a sense pinned, looking down his eye's quickly coming sharply into focus as curled tightly into his side was a very naked and happy looking Weiss Schnee.

* * *

 **Hey, the chapter is done and It only took me a little over a week.**

 **I would like to say that that is impressive but really it is the opposite, things kept coming up that took priority and I'm sorry for that.**

 **Anyways, I won't say anything aside from I hope you enjoyed the chapter if you do let me know and my next update will hopefully come much quicker.**


	6. Chapter 6

Weiss felt Jaune shift signaling he was finally waking up.

She herself had been awake for some time already, she had been exhausted when she finally succumbed to sleep hours earlier but her mind, so used to the late nights and early hours woke her easily. Her time alone with her thoughts as she cuddled closer to Jaune's side had been a mixture of anxiety and relief.

The anxiety had been first and immediate, her imagination spiraling to only the worst possible scenarios of what the night before could mean for her. The anxiety had passed with a single look at Jaune as he slept peacefully though, his face looking peaceful and calm. Weiss knew then and silently berated herself for doubting herself or him that Jaune would somehow take advantage of this situation, Jaune would never do that, she doubted him even capable of thinking in that manner altogether, more likely Jaune would freak out when he awoke in unfamiliar surroundings. As Weiss thought of that she also considered the rather expensive items she had littered around her bedroom and home and taking a precaution to save them from a startled Jaune carefully slid an arm around him and intertwined one of her legs with his. Flushing slightly at how the scene might look but quickly she banished it from her mind, what she was doing now was hardly scandalous compared to what the two had done the night before.

Confident in her position that would stop Jaune from fleeing the bed in panic Weiss let her mind drift to the night before, specifically right as Jaune left her standing by her own car alone.

* * *

Her first step had been filled with disbelief, Jaune no matter how much he had grown and matured over the years still had one massive glaring flaw. Oblivious, that was Jaune in a nutshell, and the worst thing about it as Weiss took her next step and thought about what she would do when she reached him was that somehow, against all odds Jaune Arc made obliviousness not only charming but endearing. Well, eventually, back in Beacon she remembered it being far less so.

Each step that followed as the distance between herself and Jaune shrank the disbelief waned as she grew more and more confident, she would be direct and straightforward, no doubts or reservations, and no more subtly.

That was until she reached Jaune and he turned to face her once more, in that moment she fumbled mentally for how to start the conversation, the ending was planned and predetermined or so she thought, nothing would stop her, nothing could stop her, except herself.

She did too, in a display that would have ranked with Ruby herself for the socially awkward, inept champion of the universe, she had failed again, so badly that Jaune had not only appeared confused but genuinely worried that she might have been ill with something.

In desperation to to not only save herself the embarrassment of having Jaune call for medical assistance but also to get the point across in a way that she didn't have to use words which seemed intent on failing she had pulled Jaune into a kiss, one that had only been intended to be soft and gentle, it might have even been that way initially, she couldn't remember, she did remember the feeling of what came next, the kiss became much much deeper and passionate as time lingered on.

The silence that filled the air between them after she reluctantly ended the kiss due to a growing need for air. Confusion was the only expression on Jaune's face as she watched as his mind raced to decipher the meaning behind the kiss. The meaning was clear to her and now that Jaune was effectively stunned she took a moment to more calmly explain her feeling about him and more importantly what she had hoped this might become.

* * *

Weiss shifted slightly in her bed frowning at this particular part of the memory as in retrospect it sounded far less romantic than she wanted it to and instead almost sounded like she was explaining a business deal, her frown didn't last long though as by the results of the night Jaune clearly thought differently about her confession.

* * *

The response from Jaune had been several painfully long moments of silence that seemed like an eternity to the expectant Weiss. The wait came with the greatest of rewards though as Jaune pulled her into another kiss, this one a soft and gentle one but somehow exceeding the passion and intensity of her original kiss.

In too few short moments the second kiss ended and left her deeply desiring more, a similar expression evident on Jaune's face as his eyes were entirely affixed to her own differing shades of blue locked in a passionate exchange.

What followed next was a blur, an invitation to her apartment, the meaning behind it clearly understood by both people.

Once inside she couldn't remember if a single word was said before they found themselves in her bedroom.

If the time between their second kiss was a blur to reach her apartment she had no realistic way to describe what the next few hours there was, all she remembered was how exhilarating the experience had been and how much she desired to repeat it again.

* * *

A sudden change in breathing signaled to Weiss that Jaune had finally woken up completely. Slackening her grip she shifted her head and smiled contentedly towards him as he shifted a few times, his head scanning the ceiling and then looking off the side of the bed, an arm half reaching for something before pausing as he no doubt felt her weight hampering his movement to reach any further, an instant later his head turned and looked down towards her.

"Good morning Jaune." Weiss smiled contentedly as she spoke, an urge to laugh was suppressed as Jaune's eyes flashed away from her and instead made an obvious attempt to look at anything aside from herself, something that he failed at in a charming fashion as she watched him shift his eyes toward's her many times before crunching his eye's closed and then opening them again expecting himself to be somewhere else. Charming as it was she decided to put an end to it, reaching up and pulling her body with her she placed her lip's against his, giving him a tender kiss. "I'll say it again. Good morning Jaune."

Sighing as her lips left his Jaune found his voice. "Good morning Weiss." Eyes looking at her, finally taking her in as he felt a smile he was not in control of appearing on his face. "I take it I didn't dream up what happened last night?"

"Nope, everything was real, and I'll even take credit for anything your mind might embellish as well." Weiss said with a wry smile as she moved into a sitting position on the bed, making no effort to cover herself, instead going out of her way to stretch in a way that would give Jaune the best view.

Jaune found himself entranced by the confident display from Weiss and it brought back memories of the night before back into a more vivid clarity, the passion of the moment had given him a great deal of confidence and now it did much the same thing but instead of acting on it Jaune chose to make another move. Sitting up himself Jaune stretched in a similar manner and grinned goofishly when Weiss stopped to watch him, unabashedly stunned.

A long silent moment was exchanged between the two occupants of the bed before both broke into a fit of laughter at the absurdity of their recent display both eventually falling to the sheets as the laughter died off from each and they stared quietly at each other for another long moment.

"So... where are we to go from here?" Jaune spoke first finally breaking the peaceful silence the two shared.

Weiss lay quietly, her face peaceful yet clearly in thought at the question. "I'm not actually sure. I would assume dating but I have to confess." Weiss looked at him a bit sheepishly. "I don't have much practice in that, so I guess I'll have to rely on you in that regard."

"Well, that is unfortunate then." Jaune grinned wryly to Weiss's sheepish expression. "I doubt I have much more experience than you." Jaune said as he sat up once again and this time adopting an admittedly stiff if relaxed posture his back felt noticeably sore.

"Really?" Weiss sat as well finally taking some effort to cover herself, not for any need for decency mostly because now that she was no longer sharing Jaune's body heat she remembered just how cold she preferred to keep her bedroom.

"Yes, really. You might be surprised to learn this Weiss but I'm not exactly a hit with the ladies, hero or not." Jaune said with a grin still in place. "I have some experience dating through, having some blind date's my sisters set me up with throughout the years but I'll be honest, none of those went beyond a single evening." Jaune said with a degree of embarrassment.

"Oh... I guess I just expected you to have more experience in this than me." Weiss said awkwardly, unsure exactly how she should respond to the news that her limited dating experience seemingly exceeded Jaune's who she had assumed must have had some sort of relationship over the years with someone. Suddenly a wicked thought passed through her mind. "So uh, was I your first then?" Weiss asked.

"Was I really that bad?" Jaune replied with a simple apologetic expression.

"Hardly, I would say from my limited experience in the bedroom your far greater than my few partners but you also didn't answer my question." Weiss responded, happy to see her complement to Jaune's skills brought an embarrassingly cute rush of color to Jaune's face.

Jaune looked away briefly coughing and finding a voice that became stuck in his throat at the brazen complement. "No... no, you weren't my first." Jaune said as he looked back to Weiss, his juvenile embarrassment at the current topic still clearly on his face. His mind spun to try and find a similar compliment to pay Weiss that she had paid him but all that succeeded in accomplishing was bringing an even greater rush of blood to his face.

Weiss watched with amusement as Jaune's expression became almost painfully red as he seemed to be mentally embarrassing himself as the two sat in silence. "Well while you take a minute to calm yourself down, which I'll take as a compliment, I'm going to make use of my shower, feel free to join me." Weiss said with a smile as she slipped into an adjoining room, leaving the door open behind herself.

* * *

 **One day later.**

* * *

Jaune cradled his niece in his arm's, gently rocking her back and forth as his sister Sienna did a similar action with his other newly born niece. The twin's both had fallen asleep earlier but each had a seemingly innate ability to wake up instantly as soon as they were set down. "You know I was hoping, with twins, that I might have finally gotten a nephew to spoil. I'm sure dad would have liked that too." Jaune said quietly to his sister as the two made an interesting job of doing house chores, each using their free hand to varying degrees of success. Sienna being much more adept than Jaune as she had more practice but Jaune was rapidly improving.

"Seem's to not be in the cards, look's like you and Dad are going to forever be the only two male Arc's at least until you get married and have one of your own," Sienna said with a smile as she placed freshly cleaned and dried dish's into their cupboards. "But that would mean you would actually have to have a relationship last longer than a single day." She added, taking a jab at her brother's nack for having a dismal track record for relationships.

"You know full well Dad doesn't have any interest in the gender of his Grandchildren, he simply enjoy's having them, the more the better it feel's," Jaune said as he handed his sister another plate, that she, in turn, didn't grab as swiftly as she had the previous one, eventually the pause became long enough for Jaune to look towards her and then notice her very excited expression. "Uh... Sienna is everything alright?" Jaune knew all his sisters very well, even if he didn't see them as after as he liked anymore he knew the significance behind all of their various reactions, but this one he wasn't exactly sure of.

Sienna grinned wickedly finally accepting the plate. "Oh no, everything is just fine, great even." Sienna accepted the next plate and placed it on the shelf. "So what's her name and when do we get to meet her?" she asked as nonchalantly as she could which right now was not very. "Actually don't tell me who she is lemme guess, she's someone I would know right?" Sienna's eye's looked towards Jaunes which simply rolled which for her was enough in the way of confirmation.

"Before you start guessing what make's you guess that I am in a relationship?" Jaune asked out of curiosity, his sister's always had a fairly good grasp on his social life or lack thereof, they typically figured out things about him simply on how he did or didn't respond to a statement or situation.

"Easy, and I'm taking this as an admittance that you're in a relationship or at least pursuing one right now. You ignored responding about relationships and instead focused on dad."

"That's hardly enough to assume I'm dating anyone. Seem's like your reaching pretty far there."

"Maybe but I'm pretty sure I'm right, right?"

Jaune gave his sister a small smile before nodding a single time as he handed her another plate.

"See I knew it, but like I said don't tell me I wanna guess first, and you have to tell me if I'm right, deal."

"Sure sure, ask away then." Jaune said, a smile on his face as his sister's one scrunched into one of deep thought.

"Hmm, Yang would be an easy guess, you two are always together so it's not much of a stretch that that eventually happened." Sienna looked to her brother to see if the obvious guess was also the correct one.

"Nope, Yang still has not shown an inkling of actual interest in me, and with how forward she is I think even my oblivious personality would have a hard time not noticing." Jaune said as the two moved away from the cupboards and dishes, the final chore done.

"Really? That's a shame she fits in personality wise really well with us." Sienna said with a sigh, it was no secret that out of all Jaune's Huntress friends Yang was easily the most well-liked among his family. Not that the others were shunned or anything just that Yang fit in the best. "Okay, so the easy guess is done, I guess I'm going to have to ask for a few hints then."

"Sure, I'll give you a couple honest answers to hints but I'm not going to freely offer anything." Jaune grinned as his sister began muttering to herself, to quiet for Jaune to overhear.

"Is the person your dating also a Huntress or was at one point a huntress?"

"Yup"

"Is this Huntress someone I would know?"

"Yes again."

"Hmmm... it's not Yang so that leaves only five potential people I can think of." Sienna paused in thought mentally going over the options judging which seemed like the most and least likely options.

"You know I could just tell you, it would save you same time."

"What? You got somewhere to be, no, I didn't think so now let me guess in peace."

Jaune waved his free hand in a gesture of backing off and let his sister quietly ponder her next guess, the two hints narrowed the choices she had greatly so it was simply a process of elimination.

"My next guess is Ruby." Sienna looked toward Jaune hopefully.

Jaune couldn't fault his sister for guessing Ruby second, he was honestly surprised it wasn't her first guess since it was common knowledge among his siblings that Ruby and Jaune had been each other's first. A fact that Jaune had been unable to keep secret even though he had tried, but his sisters managed to gain that information from him almost immediately. Thankfully that information as far as he knew never spread farther than his sisters, he couldn't imagine dealing with Yang if she ever learned who her little sister's first was. "Also not Ruby. So who's next now that you are out of easy guesses." Jaune teased with a smile.

"They are all easy guesses, I have four more names and one of them will be right, now it's just a matter of my pride guessing the right one before it's the only option left," Sienna said as she shifted the child in her arms to a more comfortable position which thankfully didn't wake the child either. "I could go with the most unlikely guess which would be Coco, how about it did Ms. Adel fall for your lack of any sort of charm." Sienna teased but nonetheless watched as Jaune answered.

"Nope, also that was a pretty weak guess," Jaune said as he followed his sisters motion, attempting to alter how he held his niece and succeeded in moving her to a more comfortable position though with a long-held breath when her eye's opened briefly before settling closed again to which Jaune exhaled a sigh of relief. "But I guess if you're going for an unrealistic guess that would have been the least likely." Jaune said with a small smile to his sister while inwardly he was confident he was grinning ear to ear at the bold statement, Weiss clearly fell into the category as well, more so that Coco did.

"I figured she was a long shot, but so have been a lot of the things that have happened in your life so it was a reasonable guess, that still leaves me with three guess's that are all equally unlikely." Sienna sat back in her chair thinking her final three guesses over trying to figure out which is most likely. "Blake, that's my next guess."

"Oh? Why would you think I might be dating her?" Jaune chose instead of denying it outright but instead wondering why Blake was the next reasonable option for his sister to guess. Yang and Ruby had both been safe guess's but Coco was just the shot in the dark so Blake was actually his sister's third honest guess and he was curious why.

"Two reasons. Firstly, every time you retell that story of your one trip to Menagerie you enjoy telling the story of your meeting with her mother and the subsequent blind date she set you up on a little too much. And the second reason is you told me that she recently moved to Vale, both those reasons make her a solid guess don't they?" Sienna waited for Jaune to try and refute her words, doing so would in her mind admit that Blake was the right choice.

"Can't say your wrong that I don't not enjoy telling that story, I actually told it to Yang for the first time recently, have to admit holding that in for seven years was pretty good to see her disbelieving expression," Jaune said as he thought back to the day at the gun range when he retold the story recently. "Anyways, Blake's not the correct guess either, and now your down to two options, who will it be Weiss or Velvet?" Jaune said with an admittedly smug smile on his face, making himself look confident so that his expressions would hopefully give nothing away.

"Oh, your trying to throw me off by looking smug, well you have just given yourself away." Sienna smiled victoriously as she assumed she now knew the answer to which Huntress her brother was dating. "Your dating Velvet," Sienna said with a finality that gave no error for another option. "Your smug expression was supposed to trick me into thinking it was Weiss, that somehow after four years of her being distant and awkward with you, your own words, that it somehow all ended well to bad, you lose I guessed right before only one was left." Sienna looked at her brother herself, her own expression equally as smug as his as she thought she had outsmarted him.

The two held each others gaze for several long minutes each wearing matching expressions. The first one to falter was Sienna though as Jaune stoically won the smug match, his sister's expression changing from one of smugness to that of disbelief.

"Weiss? Really?" Sienna sat silently as her brother simply nodded in response. "That make's no sense, from your own words she would have never been an option ever. What happened, I want the full story cause that makes no sense."

"It really doesn't, does it." Jaune said with a smile, still more than a little confused as the situation with Weiss himself.

Jaune told his sister the story in full, even adding in the part's he didn't remember and that Weiss had had to fill in for him, namely the night she had originally asked him out that he had no recollection of at all. When his story came to an end Sienna immediately pulled out her scroll, her hand moving in a blur of motion that was quickly interrupted as Jaune moving with a speed she couldn't hope to match both carefully managed the infant he held as well as crossed around the table and deftly swiped the scroll from her hand's before she could finish whatever mass message she was intending to send to his remaining uninformed sister and mother plus who knew who else.

"Jaune give me back my Scroll." Sienna fumed for a moment as she stared at the device in his hand.

"I will, but before I do I want a promise from you." Jaune held the scroll in front of his sister message unaltered, Jaune hadn't even bothered to look at the screen after he had swiped it.

Sienna stared at the device, dangling loosely in his grip, or so it seemed, she didn't doubt that if she made a move to grab it, it would likely be impossible to take. "You can't expect me to keep this a secret?" Sienna asked with her eyes shifting to her brothers.

"I would like you too, I can't honestly prevent you from spreading the news around," Jaune laid the scroll on the table and pushed it towards his sister who made no movement to grab it yet. "But I do hope that you would respect my wishes and not tell everyone."

Sienna looked at the device again. "Gah, no fair, your no fun." Sienna pouted her face altering to what Jaune would recognize as that of a spoiled younger sister who was accustomed to getting what she wanted. "You're not going to be able to keep this a secret for long, even if I keep your secret our sisters are as perceptive as I am and will figure it out as well."

"Oh I'm sure they will, and who says I want to keep this a secret? Weiss and I talked before I left to come visit you. We aren't going to hide our relationship, neither of us wants to but at the same time we don't want our friends and family to have inflated expectation because we are dating." Jaune said as he finally returned to his seat, putting him too far away to interfere with her scroll again.

"So all you want is to have a simple quiet relationship where your friends aren't actively waiting for you to do something." Sienna sighed and picked up the scroll, looking over her hasty and excited message for an instant. "I can respect that. Fine, you have coerced me into keeping my mouth shut for the time being but in compensation your cooking supper tonight." With a grin, she closed her scroll and deleted the unsent message in a single smooth motion.

"I can live with that deal, what would you like to eat." Jaune sighed in relief mentally as his sister began listing a whole collection of different meals. He and Weiss had talked before he left, about several things and each had agreed that they wouldn't keep their relationship a secret, neither would they actively announce it either each happy to let their friends discover it on their own.

* * *

 **Same Day**

* * *

Weiss sat at her kitchen table a stack of books and papers littered around the area as she was typing away on her laptop.

Ren had agreed to allow her to resume her work and when a courier arrived this morning with a collection of documents and materials to go over she had been instantly invested in it, for all of about an hour.

Her eye's had wandered over the various documents multiple times, but little was retained. One hour of successful work was followed by the rest of her morning being entirely wasted as her mind wandered to Jaune, wondering what exactly he might be doing right now. She knew the answer, he was visiting his sister Sienna and his two newest nieces. An image of Jaune holding an infant in his arms brought a warm feeling to Weiss as she finally gave up and stood, stretching her back working out the kinks that had formed while she had sat listlessly attempting to work.

It hadn't even been an entire day since they had parted company and already she felt she was missing him to an unreasonable extreme, they were a couple now, both had said so and she was so happy when he said so. Sending one final disgusted glance at the pile of work on her table and without another glance she vanished into her bedroom quickly grabbing a set of workout clothing and left her apartment, even leaving her car behind as she made her way to a Huntsmen training facility that her license allowed her access too whenever she wanted.

The facility in question was nothing more than a state of the art gym, filled with a selection of any type of training equipment one could imagine. As Weiss walked past some of the pieces it also proved to have equipment she couldn't imagine either as some machines looked more built for some interesting forms of torture than actual exercise.

After a quick few laps of an indoor track, Weiss made her way through the building going from machine to machine completing a routine she hadn't thought of in quite a few years. Nearly halfway through her most recent machine, she found herself struggling for breath and her vision popping wildly as an unfamiliar urge to vomit began to form.

' _God's am I really this out of shape?'_

Weiss looked at the machine in frustration and attempted to move the device which stubbornly refused to budge again. Frustration switching to anger she poured herself into the task entirely and was rewarded with the device moving an entire full rotation and for her reward she chose to sit in the machine for many long minutes as the world refused to come into focus, some quiet part in the back of her mind silently thanking anything and everything that she had refrained from throwing up.

' _Okay, that was dumb.'_ Weiss looked at the machine and conceded defeat, at least temporarily. 'Y _ou win for now but I'll be back.'_ Finding her water bottle and taking a much-needed drink she then wiped down the machine.

"Ugh, okay roughly a third of my past workout before I'm completely wiped... not great." Weiss said out loud to no one in particular, not that anyone was around to hear her, the building while not empty was clearly not busy either which made sense, middle of the day would have most Huntsmen out on contracts they picked up that morning and since the Gym did not cater to civilians the midday was the slowest point for the facility.

"Way to kick that machine's ass Weiss, I knew you had it in you," Nora shouted excitedly as she made her presence known which in turn had a startled Weiss leaping into the air and spinning wildly to find the source. "Wow, good move Weiss, I didn't know you could be so acrobatic without your Glyph's."

Already feeling lightheaded from overdoing it on the machine the rapid motion of spinning in the air proved too much for her and she felt her legs buckle as she landed, her mind cursing in frustration as the ground approached rapidly, only for her decent to halt in a single jarring instant as she felt herself stop completely in mid-air. Opening her eyes that had closed on reflex she understood what happened. "Thank you for the catch Nora but could you put me down."

"Sure thing Weissy." With an effortless strength, Nora pulled Weiss into a standing position and then let go of the back of her tank top that now looked clearly stretched as it had been the anchoring point of her falling body and Nora's grip that prevented that same action. "So now that you showed that machine who's boss whats next? Wanna go wrestle a punching bag, how about doing deadlifts with only one arm and one leg?" Nora said excitedly.

"Uhhh, no I think I'll pass on both of those, thanks though." Weiss gave her friend a perplexed look as Nora casually swung around a one hundred kilo dumbell with a frightening amount of ease as well as disregard for those around her, taking a step back Weiss spoke. "What are you doing here Nora?"

"Me? Why I'm always here on this day of the week, gotta keep myself fighting fit. A better question is what are you're doing here?" Nora asked leaning in inquisitively. "I have been coming here for years and I don't think I have seen you in here once since you stopped working as a Huntsman."

"Me, oh I uh, simply noticed a lack of fitness on my part while I took part in that recent mine contract." Weiss said, as she pointedly looked towards another machine like she was considering it next even as her body fought in earnest to simply remain upright.

"Uh huh, Nope, I don't believe that for a second."

"Believe what you like, it's the truth."

"Don't believe that either."

Weiss looked at her friend giving her an annoyed expression. "I think I should be done here, Ren sent me some work that I should probably take care of seeing how he isn't."

"Why would you think he's not doing his work?"

"Well if you're at the gym he obviously isn't at the office, he would be at home with your children."

"Nope, I'm pretty sure Ren's at the office, I think he said something about dreading a meeting or something, I don't remember I wasn't really paying attention." Nora said as she casually tossed the large weight she carried between her hands.

Weiss looked at Nora confused. "Who's watching your children if Ren's at work and your here?"

"Well, thats simple. Mom is watching them."

Nora's reply was so quick and offhand that Weiss was stunned for a few moments. "Mom, as in Mother?"

"Uh duh, that's what Mom means isn't it?"

Weiss opened her mouth to respond only to close it and pause in silence for a moment before opening it again. "Um, not to sound insensitive or mean but aren't you an orphan?" Weiss asked a serious and confused expression on her face.

"Yup, have been my entire life, I think, well as much as I can remember. Why whats up?"

"Being an orphan typically means you don't have a Mom." Weiss said in a flat tone not exactly sure any other way to deliver that sentence.

"Yup, sounds about right."

Again Weiss opened her mouth to respond only to find herself for a loss for words, mainly because Nora seemed to be missing the point she was making, or not as the case seemed to be. "Is, Mom the name of a daycare service or something?"

"Nope, Mom's our neighbor, well one of them we have a bunch, nice old lady, she look's really mean and scary but has a heart of gold and she make's the BEST pancakes, even better than Ren's. Don't tell Ren I said that. She watches the kids a few hours a week for me so I can run errands and make it here consistently." Nora said wagging her eye's mischievously showing she clearly understood the entire time.

"Okay, I guess that make's sense but why call her Mom?"

"Well Sif really like's her and asked her once if she could call her Grandma, and obviously she said yes so I just sorta started calling her Mom, Ren doesn't, but that just Ren, I see him smile whenever Sif asks about Grandma thought."

Weiss smiled happily at the image Nora had just given her. "That's really sweet."

"Yeah, Sif is pretty Awesome." Nora grinned herself. "But enough of me teasing you, and you trying to distract me. You're here to distract yourself, work clearly isn't cutting it so I'm going to assume it's Jaune."

Weiss felt she should have balked at the straightforwardness of Nora but simply shrugged in admittance.

"Did you not manage to get through to him, you were gone for three weeks almost. Should have been plenty of time to corner him."

"Not everyone is as straightforward as you Nora." Weiss said clearly imagining Nora cornering anyone, the image had a literal corner in it.

"Guh, so Jaune's still oblivious to you then? Is that why you're here working off some stress?"

"No, no I quite clearly got through to Jaune, honestly after what we did if he still wasn't in the know I might have to reconsider my feelings." Weiss paused for a moment. "Or maybe not."

"Okay, whoa. That sounds not only scandalous but also WAY too much information." Nora grinned finally placing the weight on the ground. "So whats the issue then, You and Jaune are a thing, together-together and all that so whats with the sudden gym trip." Nora's eye's narrowed. "Did Noodly Jaune wear you out, is that it?"

"Jaune is far from Noodly," Weiss responded snappishly, feeling the need to defend Jaune. "Also, no he didn't wear me out, make me sore, yes." Weiss grinned as Nora made a disgusted face. Which was clearly an act, and if it wasn't it was still payback for years of her listening to Nora explain both graphic detail or unsubtle innuendo much of what she and Ren had done.

"Okay but that still leads back to you being here"

"The first reason I told you wasn't a lie." Weiss shrugged, the constant use of Glyphs had annoyed her enough that she had planned to return to the Gym sooner or later. "But your right that that wasn't the entire reason behind me coming here. It wasn't stress either, no I don't think I can remember what stress even feels like right now." A pleasantly relaxed expression conveyed that as Weiss looked past Nora at nothing in particular.

"You miss Jaune then, that's pretty simple to figure out."

"I don't miss Jaune, he hasn't even been gone a full day."

"Sure, whatever you say Weissy, but you miss him, and by looks of it you miss him bad." A grin and a wink were all Nora gave her as she once again retrieved the weight from the floor where she had left it. "But I don't expect you to believe me, not yet anyway," Nora said as she walked away, stopping after a half dozen steps. "Come on let's get you a proper regime." Nora said waiting while Wiess looked once more through the building at the assorted machines before following along heading towards the front desk.

* * *

Yang's feet hurt. She pretended like they didn't but that was more of just being stubborn than any real other reason, besides Blake, wasn't complaining and she was the one wearing heels. Not large heals but still enough that with every step Yang imagined her ankle's crying in pain at the unnatural angle.

' _I should still be in bed.'_ Looking at her scroll Yang knew that that wasn't true, being well past noon she would have vacated her bed by now, even on her most lazy of day's she rarely managed to stay in her bed longer than nine A.M. potentially longer if she was nursing a hangover. ' _Okay, not bed, but I should still be in my apartment, wearing comfy clothes and watching some television.'_ Her mind wandered to the blissful state she wished she could exist in, not what she was currently doing. Her pleasant daydream distracting her she barely had time to react when Blake stopped again, sidestepping just in time to avoid inadvertently tackling her friend Yang stared at her surroundings, taking them in in a moment and aside from noting the apartment building being the same one Jaune lived in paid little attention.

"This place doesn't look so bad, the Apartments are a bit small but considering what I have to work with it should too much for quite awhile." Blake looked over the building appraisingly.

"Or and just hear me out on this, you could save your Lien stay with me and get yourself something bigger than a shoebox in a couple weeks." Yang sighed, bringing up the same topic as she had yesterday when Blake wanted to go apartment hunting.

"You could also listen when I say I would prefer to be on my own, I would expect most people as long as they can afford it would be similarly inclined." Blake replied not looking at the Blonde.

"This isn't because my place is just a tad unorganized is it?"

"Yang, I love you, but 'tad unorganized' is a sad under exaggeration." Blake said wryly. Yang's apartment was clean-ish but it was definitely lived in and Yang's sense of boundaries was paper thin. Plus the room she was using was clearly Ruby's, the drawers were filled with clothing that the Reaper would easily be capable of wearing but were also several sizes too small for Yang. The room was Ruby's and even if she rarely used it Blake didn't want to intrude on the sisters limited time together.

"Fine, I won't try and change your mind, not that I could unless I could find some way to restrain you and that would get tiresome I would expect. I will try and get you to look for a large place though." Yang eyed the building and frowned remembering just how small Jaune's apartment was.

"We already tried that yesterday, I've looked at every other place and they either want too much money or they had too many issues's." Blake cringed as she remembered the one place they looked the apartment had been left abandoned after its last tenant was evicted, the owner of the building hadn't made any effort to clean the rooms which were filthy. "Besides this is the last place to check and there was plenty of other places we looked at for me to consider, I just want to make sure I know all my options."

"Fine, you go talk to the building supervisor I'm going to find somewhere to sit down while I wait." Yang waved Blake off, eye's already locked on a nearby bench that was unoccupied.

Rolling her eye's Blake entered the building and after a few minutes of waiting she smiled as a kindly looking only man approached her, introducing himself as the building superintendent.

"Welcome, welcome. Please step into my office. Would you like some coffee or water perhaps." The kindly man offered, making himself busy grabbing various items as he led her into his tiny office that the man had to hold his breathe to squeeze in behind his own desk.

"Water please."

"Alright, just a moment then." Sucking in his breathe once more the man escaped from his desk and left the room returning with a glass of water. "Here you are." He said as he slipped in behind his desk again.

Blake watched the entire process with concealed amusement, the man clearly having some odd sense of fun with the manner that he carried himself and the position of his desk, almost taunting people to point out the odd setup of having such a large desk for such a small office.

"So what make's such a fine upstanding young lady like yourself interested in an apartment down here in the ShoeBox?"

"Excuse me the what?"

"The ShoeBox, this building here. It's the ShoeBox." The man said with a bright smile, a hand gently patting the wall with care. "Everyone call's it the ShoeBox and to be fair the name fits. What we lack is space for rooms we make up in for in other departments. Rooms are basically soundproof, take's a lot of activity for noise to bleed through. Each room has it's own water pressure system and heater as well as state of the art appliances, rooms stocked with furniture as well."

Blake listened to the sales pitch with interest, the man was clearly passionate about his role and the building. Nodding along and making notes as she went, she wasn't planning on making any deals today and while this place did have a great many positive's compared to other apartment buildings it had two drawbacks, the rooms were cramped, or maybe cozy, she wasn't exactly sure which way she would define them. The other was the security deposit, it was triple any other building she had toured through, though she understood why. Her guide hadn't been exaggerating when he said the appliances were brand new and top of the line, the deposit made sense. Blake followed the kindly old man into the first large room in the entire building.

"And here we have our communal area, it's fairly empty most day's except Friday's where you have to pretty much fight for sitting room."

"Oh, what happen's on Friday?"

"Our resident gourmet chef makes supper for the building, there is a pretty big kitchen through that door." The old man waved his hand at a non-descript brown door Blake would have overlooked.

"Oh, does the chef work at one of Vale's fine dining establishments?"

"Nope, the guy's a Huntsman. Pretty humble about it too. Supposedly he was one of the number that helped Ruby Rose save the world. I wouldn't know, never really paid attention to any of that." The old man waved off the subject finding a comfy looking chair and sitting down, the tour of the building having taken its toll on him. "So how about it, are you interested in a place here?" The old man asked confused by the hungery expression that now filled the eyes of his companions.

* * *

 **Hey, I'm not dead.  
**

 **Might as well have been right, an entire month without an update for any of my stories, sad times for all of you who enjoy my work.**

 **Real life happened in a big way and I simply have been unable to write. No elaborate excuses just an honest one. With that said I'll get into it.**

 **First of all, I loved the reviews for my last chapter, the best part about writing like this is the immediate response I get from people who actually enjoy (or not) reading what I write.**

 **Now that that's done with I'm going to have to give a fair warning right now, I don't know when I will be updating again, I'm hoping to go back to having multiple updates in a month so fingers crossed that I will be able to accomplish that.  
**

 **So the story...**

 **What can I say, I left the last update with a pretty sudden Whiteknight. That's pretty impossible to top, to be honest, well at least without sending the story dangerously towards a Lemon.  
**

 **Still no Ruby thought, man I really must hate her if I've excluded her for this long... heh.**

 **You know I really don't have much to say about this chapter, I'm just going to sit back and let you guys enjoy it without me throwing around my thoughts.**


	7. Chapter 7

The bench underneath her was surprisingly comfortable, the typical granite benches normally found around Vale were rough and uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time and were mostly present to allow tired shoppers moments of rest for their tired feet before continuing on there way. This bench was different, constructed out of wood with a metal frame and allowed the seat some give that allowed a decent amount of comfort, enough that Yang felt she could comfortably sit here for an extended period of time without her back or butt becoming sore. To make things even better the bench sat in the shade of one of several nearby oak trees.

Her eyes roamed the entire courtyard to the apartment building and had to admit it was pretty attractive, the comfortable bench's positioned in the shade of large sturdy trees and that wasn't it, the courtyard actually had grass as well as what appeared to be what she assumed was a communal garden of some sort. Five or six people worked in the garden as she watched them weeding as well as gathering ingredients that were at the perfect stage of ripeness.

It was an interesting concept and setup, something that she was certain was not replicated anywhere else in Vale. She could see this practice being commonplace in Menagerie and maybe even Mistral but not anywhere else.

Realizing she was staring even if the workers hadn't noticed Yang self-consciously turned to look elsewhere, her eyes settling on the four-story building that Jaune lived in, and more people than she assumed as well probably. The building on the outside could be considered large easily housing eight to ten apartments on each floor, minus the first floor which was used for maintenance and a large common area. She knew from the few times she had visited Jaune that each floor had around twelve apartments, which drastically cut down on personal space though she would admit she had expected paper thin walls but she could say that no noise seemed to travel between adjoining apartments.

Taking her eyes off the building proper she looked at the grounds again before pulling out her scroll and checking the time and frowned slightly when she realized that she had been out here for a little over an hour, the annoyance at the amount of time wasted seemed to summon Blake because she appeared instantly, sliding on the bench beside herself.

"Sorry for the wait Yang, but I had to sign some things to get everything setup." Blake said casually as she reclined on the bench.

"No worries, I was only just now beginning to get bored. So how about we get something to eat and discuss your options." Yang said hoping to her feet feeling refreshed from her break and ready to get moving again.

Blake grinned. "Sure I could go for a bite, let's grab something we can eat and walk though, we should get back to your place soon."

"Hmm, eat and walk, eat and walk... I know a good place and it's only a block or two out of our way, as long as your okay with something a little bit unhealthy."

"How unhealthy are we talking here?"

"It won't kill you but it might make you regret some decisions in your life, namely eating it." Yang grinned, more to herself than Blake as she remembered her own experiences with the food cart she was leading Blake too.

"Your not really selling me on this Yang..." Blake looked a little apprehensive.

"Bah, give it a shot you will love it," Yang said rolling her eyes. "It hasn't killed me yet and I have it once or twice a month, it's good I promise." Yang said with sincerity.

"I'll take your word for it and give it a shot." Blake sighed, as she let herself be led to this unknown destination.

* * *

Blake had to admit, the wrap was good, not Jaune level good but for something that was served out of a mobile food truck, it was definitely better than most. Yang's exaggeration that it was unhealthy wasn't in the way she had assumed either, she expected something greasy that would make the act of eating it enjoyable and flavourful but the after effects one of regret. This wasn't the case, no instead it was perfectly healthy to eat, something she could easily see herself enjoying regularly if not for the one side effect.

The more she ate the more her mouth tingled, at first it started as a pleasant warmness that lent itself well to the meal but quickly it became an uncomfortably hot sensation that bordered on legitimately painful, the only reprieve she could find from the burning feeling was oddly in taking another bite which would temporarily diffuse the heat in her mouth. Now it was a race against time as she was trying to ration the remaining handful of bites long enough to last until they reached Yang's apartment which would have milk in the refrigerator that she could use to combat the heat more permanently.

One saving grace of the trip from the food truck to the apartment was Yang hadn't tried to distract her with any conversation, she had been suspicious at first expecting Yang to just be silently enjoying her own torment but Blake was certain Yang was dealing with the same sensation she was, albeit probably muted to a more reasonable degree as Yang had admitted to eating this regularly so she knew what she was in store for.

The end of the walk had become a sprint as Blake failed to ration the rest of her meal and the need for something to wash away the burning flavour became too great, reaching into her pocket she tightly grasped the spare key Yang had given her and rushed ahead, behind her she heard a short clipped laugh before the sounds of heaver footfalls began to fall in rhythm with her own.

Reaching the building and Yang's apartment Blake nearly tore the door off it's hinges as she burst into the interior and raided the refrigerator, not even having the decency to pour the milk into a glass just opting to drink straight from the Jug, swallowing several mouthfuls before finally taking a break, due in large part for needing air. As she gasped for air she felt a tug on the jug she held and released the handle allowing Yang to mimic the action herself, though in a more restrained fashion.

"That was awful." Blake scowled at her friend, well she attempted to scowl and pretend Yang had played some mean-spirited prank on her but couldn't help smiling at just how fun the experience had been.

"Yeah," Yang said as she pulled her lips away from the jug. "it was, but it got the job accomplished, we are fed and back at my place." Yang gave her friend a lopsided grin before grabbing a pair of mugs from the cupboard and poured Blake and herself a large cup each before sticking the near-empty jug back into her fridge.

"Gah, what was that anyway." Blake asked as she ran her teeth over her tongue trying to scrape away the lingering flavor.

"Dunno, the guy who runs the truck just says 'Secret Recipe' all mysterious like and never says." Yang handed Blake her own mug and then settled into a chair. "It gets better though."

"Why would I ever go back, it was good but that burning does not make me crave more."

"That's just the new customer blend," Yang said grinning as she took a drink. "I'm honestly not sure how he stay's in business cause every new customer gets that flavor, only after you decide to come back, and believe me it took me months after my first time eating there to go back does he offer you a tamer taste."

"Is that what you had today, the tamer variety."

"Nope. I usually do but not today since I was going to torture you a little bit I figured I should have the same." Yang said relaxing as the sensation in her mouth began to fade away to a tolerable level. "Anyways, let's talk about options, well legitimate options for you anyways."

"No need, I've already decided." Blake said off hand as she finished her glass, grimacing slightly as she still tasted the flavor a bit too strongly but decided against going for another glass as it no longer burned.

"Oh? What did you choose then?"

"If you were listening at all you would already know, I picked the ShoeBox. Now come on I need to pack and do some grocery shopping, the landlord said I could move in today but to give him a couple hours to give the room one final check." Blake said as she began gathering her few belongings that hadn't stayed with the majority in her temporary bedroom.

Yang sat still for a moment, processing what Blake had just said.

Blake vanished into her room and emerged moments later a large duffle bag looped over her shoulder, not quite full but clearly holding everything Blake currently owned. "Alright, I'm pretty sure that's everything, if not I'll come back for it later." Blake fished in her pocket and pulled out a key and tossed it to Yang. "That's the spare key you gave me, now come on let's go shopping." Blake said casually standing by the door waiting for Yang, assuming the blonde would accompany her.

"What?" Yang finally uttered.

Blake cracked a full smile. "I signed the lease while I was at the ShoeBox, the place is a bit small but it has more than a few benefits, enough that it made it the best choice, now come on I'm going to need some groceries and you need milk at the very least."

"Uh, yeah okay," Yang responded. "Really though, the ShoeBox..."

* * *

"Come on Weiss, just a couple more and you can call it for the day!" Nora cheered on as she watched her friend cycle the machine through slow measured motions before finally letting it come to a stop. "Good job, see I knew you had another set in you." Nora Beamed.

"Yeah." Weiss replied, the single word expressing volumes as she felt completely drained, not in the way she had earlier when she was fighting to complete her old routine and was fighting off the effects of lightheadedness or the urge to throw up. The current sensation was the result of a proper workout done correctly. Her entire body burned from the exercise and exertion just enough that she knew everything had been done right. "I forgot how much a good a proper workout actually felt." Weiss reclined in the machine, not quite ready to get up yet and instead giving herself an opportunity to rest.

"You betcha, few things are better than this feeling." Nora said handing over a towel as well as a water bottle. "That finishes you up for the day, so what you got planned now, something else exciting to distract you from missing Jaune." Grinning ear to ear.

Weiss simply rolled her eyes as she wiped the sweat from herself and the machine, having given up on trying to convince Nora that she didn't miss Jaune. That was impossible, he hadn't even been gone a full day yet. "I'm going home to take a nice long shower and then I will finish up the work Ren sent me this morning, so no, nothing exciting."

"Yeah that's probably for the best, I need to get home anyways, Mom probably needs a break by this point," Nora said as she turned to pick up her belongings, preparing to depart. "We should make a routine of this, having a partner at the Gym makes it less tedious."

"I could go for that, it would also help keep it routine for me as well, having you drag me here when I get distracted." Weiss replied, doing much the same as Nora in gathering her belongings as well as releasing her hair that she had been wearing up during the workout letting it fall down her back before putting it into a loose ponytail.

"Sound's good, If you want to do both days I make it here its today, obviously and Saturday, when Ren watch's the kids."

"That sound like something I could make work." Weiss replied and as the two exited the Gym and parted way's they made plan's for meeting up to work out together on the weekend before splitting up and heading in there own directions.

It took Weiss little time to arrive at her apartment and after showering found herself sitting in front of her stack of work for a moment, looking it over with a practiced eye before slouching into her chair. "Why did Nora have to be right."

Weiss groaned as she leaned forward and picked up where she had left off, resolutely getting to work pouring over the multiple contracts and documents, making the necessary correction's or adjustments as needed, it was early evening before she finally closed her laptop having finally finished. Gathering the documents into a courier pack she placed it by her door and with a quick tap on her scroll she sent a notification to the courier service the RFTDC employed that she had a pickup.

Falling into her favorite chair she turned on her television and spent a mindless hour flipping through the channel's finding nothing that piqued her interest enough to linger and get invested, eventually turning off her TV and staring once more at her scroll before snatching it up and mentally grumbling about Nora before dialing a number and smiling brightly as the other end answered immediately.

"Hi Jaune."

* * *

Jaune hated this, his stomach roiled in protest as he sat in the passenger section of a commercial bullhead. He wished he was piloting the craft, though that wasn't any fault to whoever piloted the one he currently rode on. Every other passenger except for a crying child somewhere behind him had all had a relaxing, stress-free flight back to Vale.

Using a mental exercise he had practiced for many years Jaune was able to block out and ignore the motion sickness that plagued him and was able to relax as much as he ever could when he wasn't the pilot, which wasn't much all things considered but it did help him deal with it in a passable way. As the craft touched down he sat for long moments allowing those around him to gather their bags and depart before he stood himself and made his way off the ship, envying those who went before him.

The feeling of hard pavement under his feet added a great deal of reassurance to his stomach and in moments he felt back to his normal self, with a juvenile sneer back at the Bullhead Jaune made his way to baggage claim to collect his belongings.

"One of these day's I will find something that works that doesn't involve me being the pilot." Jaune said as he walked past a garbage container tossing a new looking book that dealt with coping with motion sickness inside. "Utterly useless."

Jaune collected his bag and made for an exit, he tensed briefly feeling a presence nearby but relaxing when he figured out its source, that being Weiss sneaking up on him and sliding her arm around his loose one and gripping it tightly.

"Hello Weiss," Jaune said with a goofy grin on his face, unsure exactly how to respond the public display Weiss was putting on. "Uh... I'm not exactly sure how to respond to this so if you could help me out I would love it."

Weiss reached up and flicked Jaune lightly on the nose. "Ugh and I thought I would be the useless one." She smiled.

"How long have you known me, useless is my second most notable trait after being oblivious." Jaune quipped back playfully.

"You shouldn't talk like your proud of that." Weiss responded with a snarky smirk.

"See that's where being oblivious come's in to play again." Jaune replied holding the door open for Weiss as the two stepped outside, Jaune allowing Weiss to lead the way and was rewarded with her car becoming visible after a short walk. "So I assume you have something in mind since you met me, brought your vehicle and are pretty dressed up for that." Jaune said commenting on Weiss's appearance.

"I hardly consider a blouse and Jean's dressed up, if anything it's dressed down, by several degrees."

"I would agree, normally, but in this case, I think it's the opposite," Jaune said quietly as he tucked his bag into the trunk. "Mostly because the back of your Jeans still has the size sticker attached." Jaune grinned as he deftly pulled the sticker off as Weiss spun to find it. "So again I think you're dressed up for something."

"What happened to being oblivious," Weiss scowled for a moment playfully before grinning. "I wanted to have a first date, nothing fancy or elaborate that would make you uncomfortable, something normal people would consider an acceptable first date." Weiss said blushing slightly while looking at Jaune as he seemed touched by the thought.

"Well how could I turn down such a sweet idea, what do you have planned for us then?" Jaune asked as the pair climbed into the vehicle.

"Just a movie, nothing more."

"Simple and straightforward, also early enough in the day where if we wanted to add onto it we easily could." Jaune replied looking out his window, the action causing him to miss a faint smile that crept across Weiss's face at the prospect of a longer date.

* * *

"An awful movie, a mostly okay dinner and a cold walk through a park where half the lights don't work or flicker so badly It feel's like we're in a horror movie." Weiss groaned outwardly at how awful the date had been.

"To be fair Weiss, if you wanted an accurate representation of what a first date with me would be this is pretty much perfect," Juane said with unbidden humor, he had enjoyed every moment of the date, probably much to his companions frustration. "Think of it this way and you might cheer up some," Jaune said as they turned a corner and walked over a bridge passing by a slow-moving stream. "Imagine back at Beacon you accepted my invitation to a date, I think an awful movie, a mostly okay dinner and a cold walk through a park is pretty glamours compared to what would have happened back then." Jaune pulled Weiss in close, comfortable enough to lend her some body heat but not inhibit either of their abilities to walk.

"I guess your right, I wanted a first date and in a sense I got it, no planning has it's romantic appeal but when the results are this." Weiss waved an arm at nothing in particular but the gesture was understood to encompass the entire day together. "I'd rather take my time and plan things out."

"I think I can agree with you on that." Jaune leaned down and kissed Weiss softly on the cheek. "But that being said I would not have changed a single thing about today, it was perfect."

"Thank you Jaune, my ego needed that." Weiss replied blushing at the compliment and pulling Jaune into an actual kiss.

* * *

A wistful sigh escaped Jaune's lips as Weiss pulled away from the curb and vanished down the street, the date had come to an end and he had been invited back to Weiss's place and he had been sorely tempted to take her up on her offer but in the end, decided against it.

He had to get back into his routine and much to his relief Weiss had been okay with it on the promise that they would have a more organized date in a few days, all details entirely planned out by her for a better chance at a good date. Jaune could do nothing but accept with a bemused grin as Weiss took this spontaneous date, even if they both had had fun, as a lacking experience she needed to improve on.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder Jaune made his way inside his apartment building, yawning slightly as he moved indoors, feeling tired for the first time today, the stress of dealing with his stomach problems, coupled with a full day with Weiss had taken its toll and he was exhausted. Making haste for his room he failed to notice a familiar figure sitting in the common room of the ShoeBox.

Blake watched Jaune from behind her book as he vanished into an elevator.

* * *

 **The next morning. Monday - Start of the week.**

* * *

Jaune woke up to his boring ceiling once again, calmly turned off his alarm clock before it activated and sighed contentedly, enjoying the restful comfort that was the pleasure of an uninterrupted nights sleep in one's own bed. He didn't linger on the sensation long as it was a trap, one made to lure a person into lingering too long and disrupting your routine. Regretfully he got to his feet and went through his morning routine though today one small change was made, a quick message to Weiss, wishing her a good morning, it wasn't much but it brought a smile to him and hoped it would to Weiss as well.

After exiting his bathroom, he checked his scroll and was glad to see Weiss respond in a similar manner, though she had added a photo of her sitting with an open laptop and a fairly large pile of important looking documents stacked off to the side. Jaune shook his head at that and simply went to make breakfast, the aroma of bacon and eggs filling his apartment with a heavenly aroma as Jaune turned on his television.

'Glynda Goodwitch, Headmaster of Beacon Academy has announced today that Beacon's rebuilding is finally complete and for the first time since the fall of our kingdom will the prestigious Huntsman academy will be returning to a full schedule once more, this has been a long time coming in the eye's of the Huntsman community the world over. As you all know the academy which was shut down after the fall on the Vale CCT ten years ago and then fully destroyed just a few years later as Huntsmen Ruby Rose and her companions fought and won a decisive battle against the Grimm there.

"Lie Ren, CEO of the Remnant Free Trade Dust Company is being credited as the primary financial backer that facilitated the completion of the School so far ahead of schedule, approximately two years sooner than initially expected, The young CEO was unreachable for any comment on his companies massive investment in the school but his efforts have earned him a great deal of power both inside and outside of Vale. Members of the community are already advocating for the philanthropic Lie Ren to be elected to the Vale council a prestigious position to say the least, however...'

Jaune turned off his television having finished up inside his apartment he grabbed his weapons, strapping Crocea Mors to his waist and sliding his unnamed pistol into its holster, he stepped out of his apartment and made his way through the building ending up in the lobby in just moments, intent on making his way outside and towards the Huntsmen offices.

His plan halted in the Lobby though as he found Blake leaning against a wall by the sole entrance at the front of the building. "Uh, Morning Blake?" Jaune looked around for a moment and even squinted his eyes trying to look through the frosted glass of the front doors trying to find a mane of golden hair. "Where is Yang?"

"Couldn't tell you, I assume wherever she regularly is on day's that she works." Blake said with a disarming smile.

Jaune eyed Blake uncertainly, her current smile making him feel uneasy for reasons he couldn't explain. "Uh, okay, fair enough answer. Why aren't you with her though?"

"That would involve a lot of extra effort on my part. I would need to wake up earlier then backtrack thirty or so minutes to meet her at her apartment, or I could spend that time here waiting for you to learn when I need to leave to meet up with you so we can meet with Yang together." Blake said as she held the door open for Jaune and waved him through before following herself.

Raising a solitary eyebrow Jaune headed outside. "Well that is surprising, I didn't figure you would move into the ShoeBox."

"How is that so surprising, it comes completely furnished, the rent is easy if you can afford the security deposit, and it's one of the more centralized apartments in the city."

"And it is also is small, which works for me as I don't need much space, but I guess I assumed you would be like most women I know and like more room," Jaune said, not being disparaging just stating a fact he knew from having Seven sisters as well as all his female huntsmen colleagues having similar preferences, in terms of space at least.

"I can understand that but I'm used to making due with less, Menagerie has a space problem. I would have to measure myself but I'm willing to bet the square footage of my apartment is still bigger than the average home back on Menagerie." Blake replied a touch of sadness in her voice.

"Really? I thought the kingdom was expanding?"

"Oh it is, with our own CCT installed and their own academy Menagerie has close to doubled in size since there completion but it's still a work in progress, there is massive overcrowding on the inhabitable portions of the island to this day, people are living more comfortably than they have in years but its still a smidge crowded, but improving."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that." Jaune said as he stopped walking and turned to lean against a wall, the shade keeping him cool as the world around the two huntsmen gradually grew warmer as the morning progressed. "Yang should be able to hear Yang soon." Jaune tilted his head off to the side, he was slightly ahead of schedule this morning even with the slight delay from meeting Blake but it wasn't too long before the pair heard a familiar engine in the distance. "Have you two done any work while I was away?" Jaune asked as they watched Yang pull into the parking garage.

"No, Yang was treating this like a vacation and I was content to wait for her to be ready to work again, gave me a chance to re-familiarize myself with the city and see what huntsmen facilities I could access." Blake stretched as she waved to her partner who from a distance waved back.

"Morning Yang." Jaune said with a wave of his own.

"Jauney, you made it back and one piece and without Sienna pawning a kid off on you, impressive," Yang said with a cocky smile slugging him gently in the arm before throwing an arm over both his and Blakes shoulders. "Ah back into the swing of things right away, so what do ya think Neptune has for us."

"Could be anything I guess, likely a lot of Grimm cleanup's like regular, I wouldn't mind getting my hands dirty with something basic like that." Jaune said, thinking it was a good way to shake off the rust of the three easy weeks at the mining site and then the week with his sister.

"I would be on board with that, or some reconnaissance. Pretty much anything but escort or security to be honest." Yang said with a bored expression, having no interest in the boring assignments, the Mine job had been an exception to her regular rule, the pay making room for that exception.

"I'm fine with anything, I'll just follow your lead." Blake said smiling.

* * *

 **Late afternoon, Monday.**

* * *

Blake, Yang, and Jaune stepped out of the Bullhead, Jaune looking worse for wear as his stomach still felt the effects of air travel but aside from that, all three were in high spirits.

"Well, that was a thing." Yang said as she rolled her shoulders working out the stiffness from the bullhead ride back to Vale.

"Yup, a good way to get back into the swing of things, though you could have left one or two more for Blake." Jaune said as color returned to his face.

"You snooze you lose, beside's she took down the biggest one we came across, that is easily worth two or three of the little ones I dealt with." Yang retorted. "Besides, what about you Jaune, I didn't even see you take down a single Grimm."

"What else is new, I can barely keep up with you on how fast you deal with Grimm pack's and even if Blake is not in perfect shape she's way faster than me off the mark. I got paid to pretty much take a scenic hike." Jaune said as he shrugged his shoulders casually, he did, in fact, deal with a couple Beowulf but he was used to this from Yang.

"So who's drawing the short straw and dealing with the paperwork on this one." Yang asked, eyes clearly begging for it to not be her.

"You dealt with the Mine job so I owe you, probably a couple considering the amount of time we were out, I'll handle the next couple turn in's to repay the favor," Jaune said as he quickly checked his scroll having felt it vibrate in his pocket when they returned to the CCT service range. "Blake do you want to see how it's done?"

"I suppose I should, I went with Yang to deal with the Mine job but that all was too much to soon so easing myself in with something simpler would be nice."

Yang stretched her back. "I'll leave you two too it then, I need a shower among other things. We going out again tomorrow?" Yang asked.

"I don't see why not, we are back early enough thanks to the extra set of hand's I'll see what Neptune might have slated for tomorrow and send you the detail if I find anything." Jaune said as they came to an intersection, Yang turning one way, waving goodbye as he and Blake turned the other way.

* * *

Jaune hadn't made it past the entrance into the Shoebox when he was accosted by the building superintendent, the kindly old man gave his companion a perfunctory nod before pulling him aside. "I guess I'll see you later Blake." Jaune said waving as the old man pulled him into his office.

Blake watched the odd scene for a moment unsure how to react exactly but once the door clicked shut she crept up to it and sat in one of the many available chairs interested to overhear what the two men might be discussing that Jaune was whisked away so quickly, she knew she should mind her own business but curiosity, as always, won out. Settling into the chair closest to the door she trained her hearing in and began to faintly pick up the conversation going on inside.

"I guess I should have come to see you last night, sorry I got back kind of later than I expected and didn't know if you wanted to be bothered." Blake could here Jaune apologizing to the old man.

"Nonsense, nonsense you have a life to live and I don't want to be a hassle." Blake heard the old man take a deep breath, pausing like he didn't want to continue.

"You never have and you never will, but considering your hesitance I assume it was Mrs. Porters turn to decide the menu and you want to make it something special."

"You know me too well Jaune. She doesn't want anything fancy, her request was just roast beef but I was hoping you could do something a little special for her."

"You mean for both of you, how long have you two been dating, four years or five?"

"Five."

"Sounds like a good reason to celebrate, don't worry I'll make sure that at least the two of you have something extra this Friday."

"Thank you so much Jaune, you're a saint and don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."

Blake heard some faint laughter from inside the room, clearly Jaune's.

"So who's next, if it was Mrs. Porter then it should be Mr. Benedict next but he's still off visiting family in Vacuo."

"Actually next would be the nice Faunus girl you arrived with, how do you know her exactly."

"Blake, I've known her for about ten years now, been friends for almost that long too."

"Well I guess I can let you fill her in on how you do this then, you have any idea of what she might pick for her meal?"

Blake heard a quick abrupt laugh followed by the sounds of a chair sliding as someone stood up, quickly making herself scarce Blake dove into the thankfully empty common room and pulled open a book from a nearby table, making herself look believably invested in it npt even looking up in interest when Jaune left the office and looked directly at her.

She heard Jaune audibly shrug before he disappeared, her senses focusing intently on the noises that came from him as he left as her mind swam with idea's and possibilities, she could not believe her luck, she only had to wait one week before she could have Jaune cook anything she wanted.

Her mouth watered.

* * *

The figure silently checked the hall outside their room, sighing when it was empty of any occupant. Placing one foot outside the door and silently sliding the rest it's body behind it before quietly closing the door.

Padding down the hallway quietly the figure ducked behind a stack of crates thankful for the lack of illumination as two figures walk nearby, even stopping for a moment to talk just on the other side before moving on.

Letting out a held breath through tight lips the figure vaulted the crate it had hidden behind, dashing so quickly that anyone who might have seen anything would be uncertain of what exactly they might have witnessed.

The figure hit the next door, the door that would take it outside at a blistering pace, but with a precision long ago mastered the door was not flung open wildly, instead it swung open silently and the figure vanished out of sight, a flutter of a heavy loose piece of clothing was the only sound made as the figure scaled the roof of the building with an easy that would astound anyone who might witness it.

The roof held a degree of safety for the figure that was not available indoors, or it should have, the roof that should have been unoccupied currently did have another occupant, the escaping figure groaned in exasperation as the other figure immediately locked eyes with itself.

"Miss Rose, may I ask exactly what you are doing?" Oscar Pine asked, his expression unreadable currently.

"I'm leaving, and this time you are not going to change my mind." Ruby stood across from Oscar, her expression set and uncompromising. "I have had enough of interviews, and dinners and everything else that comes with being the 'Hero of Remnant'"

"Ruby please, consider your position, you simply cannot just stop, it would cause no small degree of panic if you just stopped." Oscar said sounding slightly exasperated, tired of having this same confrontation, it becoming routine at this point.

"No, I have thought about my position, and I am done, completely and thoroughly." Ruby glared at Oscar, showing more commitment tonight than she had in any of their previous encounters.

Oscar stared at Ruby in silence, his eyes attempting to match the hard Silver that came from Ruby's but eventually he relented and looked down breaking eye contact. "What will you do then, you are too popular and famous to have a normal life."

"You know, back when I first got into Beacon I just wanted to be normal, nothing more nothing less." Ruby looked out over the rooftop, and further into the distance, past forests and mountains and even an ocean, the direction was that of Home, Vale. "Now though, I'm okay with being special, and I'll cope with being famous as well. After all, I will have my friends."

Oscar let got a breath, he knew that eventually, Ruby would leave, he had postponed it for as long as he could but it was inevitable. "Fine I won't stand in your way but can I ask you one thing." Oscar's eyes came up from the floor of the roof to look at Ruby once again. "Can we try to be something again?" Oscar felt emotions he had kept hidden away for years come unbidden from deep in his subconscious, a time of happiness when he and Ruby were a couple, that had stopped one day, the day when Ozpin and Oscar vanished.

Ruby's head snapped back towards Oscar her eyes which had been hard and resolute softened in sympathy. "I'm sorry Oscar but no, your not the man I grew to like, that was you before you became, well, the you, you are now." Ruby said, frustrated in how confusing it sounded but knowing that both parties on the rooftop understood. When Oscar and Ozpin had been different personalities She had become charmed by Oscar, and because of that she was able to ignore Ozpin and for awhile it had been a great relationship, until there was no Oscar or Ozpin, there was only the new Oscar.

At some point Oscar and Ozpin's personalities, memories and experiences had become one and the change had been almost impossible to notice except to the person closest to him. Ruby had noticed immediately and she had tried to be okay with it but in the end couldn't, It had broken Oscar's heart when she ended the relationship, especially when they still had to work together after that but she knew it was for the best, though clearly, Oscar didn't agree as he brought up the subject for the first time ever.

Oscar stood unmoving, he knew that that was going to be Ruby's response, even if he couldn't admit it he knew she was right, he wasn't the same man that he once was and could not fault her for no longer seeing him the same way, he felt it himself, He was no longer Ozpin or Oscar, something more than they were seperately but also something less.

He began to turn to leave when a hand was placed on his arm, that then pulled him into a hug, one of comfort but also farewell.

It hurt, the embrace to be so close to something you once had but lost through no fault, theirs or yours, just a circumstance you could not control.

No final words of parting were exchanged, and the embrace was over in an instant, Ruby was gone, back to Vale and Oscar was left alone on a Rooftop, surrounded by a shower of Rosepetals.

* * *

 **So end's the long drought.  
**

 **A new chapter, some forward momentum for character and the arrival of Ruby in the story herself, not just being talked about by other character.**

 **Anyways, if Tidyfrog has her way you guys should be seeing more activity from me with this story going forward.**

 **I look forward to hearing what you guys think of the chapter, good or bad, and until next time Have a happy New Years.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Mistral Coast, Tuesday.**

* * *

Ruby had to admit, it was a chore being famous. Every day was an ordeal that she had long ago gotten tired of and the first day all by herself was turning out to be a frustrating one.

She had to completely change her appearance twice in a single day, having to stash away her cloak and Cresent Rose away immediately, though that was something she knew she would have to do, what she didn't expect was that after finding and purchasing new clothes, images of her new outfit had already circulated and her disguise was moot.

Wisking herself off to the other end of the small city, her semblance making that an easy feat, she quickly purchased several sets of clothing. Mixing and matching them until finding something that worked, Ruby then made her third appearance for the day.

Stepping out of the store's dressing room she had to admit once she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the mirrors that she had a hard time recognizing herself.

Gone was the Red hood and cloak, with it the collapsed form of Cresent rose that was as ever-present as her cloak, both tucked safely away inside her traveling bag. Another missing feature was her combat clothes, the corset and skirt that she wore commonly were also stashed away, along with any other article of clothing that she was synonymous with.

Now she stood and admired her new look, even if it was to be temporary, lessons from Coco Adel on fashion helping to mask her identity thoroughly.

She now wore pretty common fair, a pair of runners, comfortable as well as functional but clearly not sturdy enough to hold up if she was to use her Semblance while wearing them, the lack of ankle support from not wearing her boot's was instantly noticeable. Next was her pant's, a pair of loose fitting jeans that seemed almost ill-fitting to the point that a belt was needed to hold them in place. Her shirt was a simple t-shirt, grabbed from a stack of mixed colors the one she wore being a simple light orange.

Taking an appraising look at her outfit Ruby knew that Coco would probably string her up if she claimed to take fashion advice from her but that was the point currently, to look unrecognizable and in this instance she took everything she knew from Coco and reversed it, actively pursuing the counter of everything she had learned and it worked masterfully.

No heads turned to look her direction and stayed fixated on her, she received normal passing glances of curiosity that everyone commonly did before returning to whatever they were doing.

Though occasionally a person would look at her long and hard, making her feel as if her cover was blown but so far the final portion of her disguise, which wasn't a part of it at all had convinced others that she was not who they thought she was.

People knew what she looked like and though she was dressed differently a simple pair of glasses or a hat would do little to hide that but her currently hidden away cloak and hood had hidden away a feature that only a handful of people knew currently. She wore her hood at all times, every public appearance, interview or meeting her hood was always fixed securely in place, only the front of her face and her bangs ever showed and because of that everyone assumed she still had short hair, not the flowing main that she currently displayed to the world. The long hair that sported in a loose fashion letting is fall where it may was easily the greatest camouflage she could have every dreamt of.

After a few stop's to make sure that she would appear for the most part unrecognizable Ruby made the only important stop for the day, with a quick transaction she purchased her ticket and boated the slow Ocean vessel, the destination Vale.

* * *

 **Thursday, Mid Evening, Vale.**

* * *

Jaune tugged at his collar slightly, as he had several other times through the date. A date that had been going perfectly, the live stage musical Weiss had brought him to had been enjoyable, so much so that he had even spent a few Lien to purchase all the songs that had been sung, personally enjoying every single one. Now they stood in a small queue waiting for a reserved table at one of Vale's more exclusive dining establishments and the collar that had chafed him slightly earlier seemed constricting and he had to forcibly keep reminding himself not to play with his collar.

"Uh, Weiss could you help me with this." Jaune looked down to his partner who stared up at him for a moment her eye's raising quizzically. "The collar, it's not fitting right." Jaune said, trying to not sound pathetic, unsure whether he succeeded or not.

"Here bend down a little." Weiss smiled appreciatively when he didn't just bow slightly but instead brought his neckline perfectly in view of her eyes. "See this is why you should have let the man at the shop fit this properly, the collar is much to tight." Flicking open her purse Weiss pulled out a few items before finding what she was looking for, a pair of small scissors and a needle and thread. "Now hold still, I only have practice with this when it's clothing I'm wearing and I'm not exactly the best." Weiss smiled nervously as she went to work, her hands moving deftly as she loosened the collar slightly with the scissors before patching the hole she made.

Taking a step back and pulling on the collar a few times Weiss nodded. "How does that feel, better, less constricting."

Jaune stood to his full height again and quickly ran a hand around his neck before gently shifting his collar one final time and clearing his throat quietly. "Yes actually, I didn't know you were good with a needle and thread." Jaune twisted his neck slightly and felt a satisfying pop as a stiff cramp that had developed due to the tightness let go and he sighed slightly.

"I'm really not, at least not compared to what I can see others do, my skill's make for passible quick fixes and that about it." Weiss said smiling at the complement Jaune had paid her though.

"Well, I'll remain impressed regardless."

Weiss smile grew at the compliment as they moved forward, the party in front of them being taken to their table and now they stood at the front of the line. The host smiled warmly and in a moment the couple found themselves sitting at a small table in a quiet corner of the restaurant, a section that seemed to promote a more intimate atmosphere than the rest of the building. There were only a handful of tables in this area, only one other table was occupied currently and aside from both parties giving each other momentary glances nothing further was exchanged.

"This feel's pretty far above my social etiquette Weiss." Jaune whispered as he looked at the host who was easily as dressed up, or more so than himself.

"I kind of assumed it would be," Weiss grinned mischievously, making a motion to her chair which to Jaune's credit he understood and hastily pulled it out for her. "but I'm sure you will manage, besides, the first, first date was spontaneous and cheap. I figured the second first date should be expensive and over planned."

"You know, Second first date sound's kind of silly." Jaune said as he took his seat, finding the chair thankfully comfortable despite its appearance.

"It does, but I'm going to continue to refer to it that way."

Jaune held up his hands jokingly conceding the point with a grin. "Hey no complaints, just an observation, but does this mean we are going to have a third, first date that fall's into the grey area between cheap and expensive, and spontaneous and planned?"

"That's not a bad idea." Weiss said thoughtfully as she accepted a menu from their host, the man disappearing seamlessly afterward. "I think you should be in charge of that date then, we will call the spontaneous date a mutual effort and this one is clearly my effort so you can have the next one." She smiled at her partner who was staring at her thoughtfully, with a small smile of his own.

"Putting me on the spot but also giving me the easiest date to plan, I would feel insulted if I didn't already have an idea in mind or I wouldn't have bothered bringing it up." Jaune said as he looked at a pair of menu's, noticing one of the menu's only listed drink's he placed in on the table closer to Weiss positive she would better understand that than himself as he turned to the other, his expression immediately twisting into one of confusion as he struggled to even pronounce many of the words on the first page, with the exception of the word 'Appetizer" Jaune felt like he was reading a foreign language. "Uh Weiss," Jaune said hesitantly as he continued to look at the menu. "Is it possible they gave me a menu in a different language?"

Weiss looked up from her own menu with a sneaky grin. "No, I'm fairly certain this is a normal menu."

Jaune caught the grin and stared for a long moment before returning to the menu, his eye's scanning each page looking for something he recognized but after a few minutes he admitted defeat and closed the menu, unable to read the contents and having no pictures for reference he gave up. "Since I'm sure you planned for me not being able to understand the menu, what exactly are we having tonight." curious about the seeming plan Weiss had as she still wore the sneaky smile.

"A few things, but the main course is an Atlassian favorite, you don't commonly find restaurants that even serve it outside of Atlas and when they do normally it's not prepared right, but the cook here is originally from Atlas and I have had it before and it is wonderful." Weiss said as she looked over the menu still pretending to read it even after admitting that she already knew what they were having and it was most likely in the finishing stages of preparation before they even arrived at the table.

"Oh, now I'm curious." Jaune piqued up at the mention of an Atlas dish, particularly at the admittance that it was uncommon to see outside the northern kingdom.

"It should be ready soon, the host informed me of that when we arrived. In the meantime, I have a question for you." Weiss said as she closed her menu and seemingly out of thin air the host arrived and swept it away as well as returned with a chilled bottle of wine.

Jaune watched, a little awestruck by how fluidly Weiss acted in this environment, he hadn't even seen her interact with the wine menu he had placed near her but now that he thought of it the host had whisked it away on one of his trips and he was certain that there had been a marker attached to a page. "Uh, yes, what question is that." Jaune eyed Weiss as he sought to pay attention to the apparent many hidden actions that were being performed by his date and there vanishing host.

"Why Thursday?"

"Uh, what?"

"When I asked you what day worked for you earlier this week you said Thursday," Weiss took the chilled bottle of Wine and fluidly poured herself a glass, giving Jaune a snarky smile that to his credit seemed to register belatedly that he should have offered to pour hers for her. "I mean, any day is fine, neither of us has a career that really locks us into a terrible day for date's but call me curious, I think you had a reason for today as opposed to another day."

"A fair few I imagine, though really only two that matter." Jaune replied as he grabbed the bottle and poured himself a glass as well almost forgetting to return it to its chilled bucket but remembering at the last moment, mostly in part to a small smile and a raised eyebrow from his dining partner. "Ugh, If your dates will all be like this your going to have to give me lessons so I look like less of an idiot."

"But I find the idiot so charmingly endearing." Weiss smiled broadly eye's glowing like jewels.

For a moment Jaune sat stunned by Weiss his mind emptied of any thought, he was simply transfixed before he came back to himself, feeling his face flush in embarrassment he quickly cleared his throat and looked away for a moment to compose himself.

This action did little to help him though as Weiss's radiant eye's never once diminished as somehow her smile grew even more encompassing. Eventually, though Jaune managed to compose himself, largely in part to the returning host who brought with him a soup, an appetizer or first course, Jaune wasn't sure but was thankful that it brought pause to Weiss's expression and allowed himself a moment to compose himself.

"As for why I choose Thursday, it's simple, Saturday you have a workout appointment to keep with Nora." Jaune said knowingly, smiling a bit to himself at the piece of knowledge he knew, a chance encounter with Nora had been enlightening earlier this week and he used the knowledge to his advantage currently. "As for Friday, I have a meal to cook, one that in the future I might have to rearrange but this one I could not." Jaune said flatly, as he now stared at a new problem, the table had too many utensil's, as he reached for one he paused briefly and looked at his partner who sat there smiling once again, this time not the expression that had struck him speechless but one of playful amusement. "Okay, which spoon do I use to not be a savage."

"That would be the second one."

Jaune looked at the second spoon in interest for a moment, going as far as to pick it up and inspect it for a moment before placing it down again and picking up the first spoon. With a single casual look to his dining partner Jaune dipped the much larger spoon into the soup and with a smirk began his meal.

The smirk was responded with a simple grin as Weiss picked up the second spoon and dipped it into her own soup. "So you cook on Friday's? Who exactly do you cook for if it's a weekly staple in your routine?"

"I cook for my apartment building." Jaune said after savoring the soup that he realized was actually more of a broth, "Every week a tenant gets to choose the menu and then I cook it for the entire building."

"Isn't that rather daunting? I mean that must be a fairly large meal every week."

"Not really, the building isn't exactly packed with tenants, usually I'm only feeding twenty people total, though that varies depending on the dish selected for that week."

"Still that seems like a large work commitment."

"Originally it was, I quit once, back when I was doing it alone." Jaune frowned for a moment. "I did all the prep work, cooking, and cleaning afterward, it became a chore I didn't really enjoy." Jaune dipped his spoon into his soup and heard the click of metal against porcelain and looked down surprised to find the bowl already empty. "Huh, good soup."

"It was, but you said you almost quit, what made you keep doing it?" Weiss asked curiously.

"I did quit, for an entire month, until I was approached by one of the older tenants." Jaune chuckled silently to himself for a second. "She volunteered to help in the kitchen if I started cooking again, even if it was only once a month. It wasn't just her either, I didn't exactly say yes or no to her only that I would think about it, well before the day had ended I had been approached by probably everyone living in the building at some point offering to help in some way or another. Now I learn the menu a few day's in advance, and give a list of ingredients to the building supervisor, when I arrive on Friday it's just a matter of doing the prep work and actual cooking." Jaune said as he looked at his bowl one final time, willing it to be full again as it tasted wonderful.

Weiss sat in silence as Jaune recounted the story, smiling as Jaune appeared happy as he reminisced over the topic. "So what is on this weeks menu?"

"Just a roast, Beef specifically." Jaune shrugged with a smile as the host reappeared carrying another appetizer of sorts.

The meal progressed with a few other innocent questions from Jaune that typically went with him using the incorrect utensil, Neither the two sharing the table made any comment and aside from a bemused glance from their host nothing was changed.

Eventually, the main course arrived and Jaune had to admit the dish smelled, well he didn't want to do it a disservice, but awful, a pungent aroma of rendered fat assaulted his nostrils, Weiss, on the other hand, breathed in deeply, savoring the flavor unquestioningly. Jaune was concerned for his sense of smell because currently the full aroma was being blocked by a silver cloche, not just muting the aroma but also hiding the dish.

"That is a... unique aroma." Jaune said as the host beat a hasty retreat himself, seeming to have been holding his breath the entire time he was in possession of the two dishes.

"I know, isn't it simply wonderful." Weiss replied, not noticing the hesitant look of her companion, so absorbed was she in preparing to remove her cloche to get a direct look at the dish.

Hesitantly Jaune raised his hand to match Weiss's and after a deep breath, in unison, he removed his cloche in time with Weiss, the unfiltered smell hit him full force and his eye's watered at the pungent flavor. Keeping a straight face was a monument challenge as even though he had not let go of his held breath yet he could somehow taste the flavor and he struggled to maintain his composure. It was easy to identify the majority of the dish, potatoes were a staple in Atlas, used in all level's of cooking, Cauliflower was also present, it had been steamed and covered in some form of reduction sauce, the last portion where the obvious ungodly smell came from Jaune could not identify.

Normally in Atlas, fish was the staple meat of choice, the kingdom had the largest fishery in the world, ocean currents meeting in just the right fashion the year round to provide an easy source of protein for the coldest kingdom. Along the southernmost coast, some livestock existed and Jaune assumed he was going to be treated to some form of beef or pork as Weiss had called the dish an Atlassian favorite, he had assumed it would have been something for the richer population of the country. That was clearly not what she meant though as even the most unpractised eye could discern that the meat on his plate was clearly fowl.

Releasing his held breath quickly and taking another through his mouth, not trusting his nose enough to let it take the aroma Jaune looked to his companion for the first time since removing the cloche. "Weiss, what exactly is this?" asking quickly, trying to deaden his senses.

"This, Jaune, is Penguin." Weiss pointed to the dish again breathing deeply but this time noticing Jaune's reddened cheeks, indicative that he was holding long breaths. "Uh... the flavor can be quite strong." Weiss said hurriedly as she stood and moved to stand beside Jaune, quickly cutting a slice of bread that had arrived with the meal, smearing a bit of jelly on it she held it up for Jaune to eat.

Chewing on the bread jelly mixture had a strange effect, the jelly did not taste like anything, it had a very oily texture but aside from that he tasted nothing, not even the bread it was spread on but once he swallowed he noticed something had changed, the odour from the Penguin meat was decidedly less pronounced, it still smelt bad for lack of a better word but at least now he could return to breathing through his nose once more. "I don't know what you did but thank you." Jaune said gratefully as he exhaled before taking a slow steady breath, his nose picking up the scent still but in a manageable fashion.

Weiss fretted over Jaune for another moment making sure he was alright and after he took several more breathes did she return to her own seat looking slightly uncomfortable. "Are you alright Jaune? I know the smell can seem quite... intense."

"Intense is a word." Jaune replied with a half smile as he alternated his look between Weiss and the Penguin dish. "This is an Atlassian favorite?" Jaune asked, wondering how anyone would consider eating this even once if it smelt like that.

"Penguin is a common fair in Atlas," Weiss said hurriedly. "Prepared in a fair range of different methods, this is my favorite, broiled in fish oil and salt water with some blubber," Weiss said apologetically, looking slightly apprehensive. "I may have forgotten that it is a little intense for a first-time eater, Penguin has a strong flavor naturally and this way only makes that more so."

Jaune looked at Weiss and with a kind look and a reassuring wave. "No harm done, so don't worry about it. I am curious what was that Oily Jelly you gave me that seem's to be muting my sense of taste and smell?"

Weiss looked apprehensive again as she spoke. "That's not actually a jelly, I mean it comes from a jellyfish." Weiss said sheepishly.

Jaune looked at the small dish for a moment before looking at Weiss and then back to the dish. He knew immediately what he had just eaten and aside from clearing his throat at the thought, he tried not to think of the toxin jellyfish use to incapacitate their prey. "I see... well forget I asked, I'm going to try." Jaune said with a grin that seemed to bolster and reassure Weiss.

Weiss allowed a relieved breath to escape finally, she looked over the main course and their setting and made a mental note to not plan so far ahead in the future, a perfect evening was almost ruined because of an innocently selfish desire to treat Jaune to one of her favorites. She also made a mental note to return another day and track down whoever thought to add that dish of Jelly, it had saved the moment. "Well, I guess we start." speaking offhand about the food, unsure where the conversation was supposed to go after the recent awkward situation.

Jaune waited a moment allowing Weiss to go first and then once she was invested in her meal, likely trying to find a way to get a conversation going again Jaune bolstered himself with a sip of wine before slicing off a piece of meat and placing it in his mouth, biting down a rush of juice escaped the piece and Jaune gagged.

* * *

 **Friday, Mid Afternoon, Vale.**

* * *

A strong acidic flavor burned his tongue as Jaune sat alone in the massive kitchen that would soon be filled with a dozen or so people, all their to help him prepare today's meal, now though he was it's sole occupant, calmly going over the recipe and checking on the ingredients as he sucked on a Lime. The flavor of it so sharp that normally he would have trouble concentrating on anything other than it but currently that wasn't the case.

The flavor wasn't exactly right, though that wasn't the limes fault, everything he had tasted since the night before has had a very washed away flavor. It was also one hundred percent his fault as well.

In an attempt to no ruin his evening with Weiss he had forced himself to keep the Penguin in, even as his taste buds fought in protest he achieved victory over them and swallowed the offending piece of bird flesh, if he had called it there he probably would have saved himself a fair amount of discomfort but he didn't, he refused to be responsible for having a bad date.

He had doubled down, slicing himself another piece of bread and putting an admittedly large helping of the jellyfish jelly on it he downed that and with his sense of smell and taste dead to the world he had went back to his meal, finishing it with no problem and finishing the date without causing a scene, even enjoying the night with Weiss, back in his apartment this time.

The problem arose after Weiss had left, leaving after they had shared a simple breakfast. Jaune had literally dove for his scroll as the door clicked shut and he was searching for the side effects of the jelly.

The results hadn't been too alarming, having calmed himself down greatly in only a few short moments of research. During the long day, he had assaulted his mouth with acidic food's and beverages slowly regaining his sense of taste, though he was sure once he did his mouth would hurt for another reason, as he was positive no one should realistically eat over a dozen limes in a single day.

Wincing slightly as he gingerly removed the Lime wedge from his mouth, the corners of his lips feeling raw he sighed and slipped in another wedge.

* * *

 **Friday, Late Evening, Vale. Blake.  
**

* * *

Frustrated and annoyed, those were the two prominent emotions she currently felt, annoyed that she had been roped into taking an assignment today by Sun, his normal partners being elsewhere he had called her up to fill a spot and considering her need for Lien she had accepted when she learned it was a simple reconnaissance job, scouting a few recently cleared Grimm dens, making sure they were still empty.

They hadn't been, well most had been empty but not all of them. So they cleared them out, a slow process as no one in the party was proficient in dealing with groups. A job that should have been done by mid-afternoon at the latest had taken until early evening, then travel time back into Vale. By the time they had landed, she knew that the weekly Supper at the apartment complex was long over.

Resigned to that knowledge Blake had said her farewells to Sun and the rest of her group and just headed home, swearing in the future to not work on Friday's.

The walk home had changed her mood from quiet disappointment to instead the simmering frustration and annoyance she currently felt, feeling she was uncertain of who they should be directed at. Accepting the job had been a risk, a simple delay would cause her to miss a meal. A meal that shouldn't matter in the long run, it wasn't her menu item, but it mattered, for some reason.

Distracted as she was with dealing with her thoughts on why it was so important that she missed the meal that she belated realized she had made it home. Standing outside the entrance she passed her scroll in front of the sensor that would allow her inside, with a muted click and a flash of a dim green light she pulled the now unlocked door open. Stepping into the well lit entrance she headed toward's the stairs that would take her to her room, she tried to avoid looking at the common room where the meal would have been served but the fact that she had to walk right past it she paused for a moment, a simple curtain hung in place providing a screen between the entrance and common area.

Faint noise could be heard through the curtain, but something else a smell also, a lingering one but still very pleasant and welcoming. With a brief look at the stairs, she shrugged and slipping through the curtain to be met by a darkened room.

The common room was near dark, around the walls the lights must have been set to the lowest possible setting, giving just enough light so that people would be able to see enough to travel the room safely as the usually uncluttered room was now cluttered with tables and chairs that made navigation hazardous. The noise she had heard through the curtain was coming from the only well lit portion of the room.

A single much smaller table than the rest sat near the edge of the room tucked near the far wall and set well apart from the other tables, giving it a much more intimate vibe, something that was clearly intentional as the lit table shone with candlelight.

She recognized one of the occupants as the building's Superintendent, the odd but kind old man was smiling warmly at his dining partner listening to a lady who likely matched him in age tell a story. Clearly, one she remembers fondly as her expression beamed as she spoke.

Curiosity satisfied Blake moved to step out of the curtain and back into the hallway to leave the elderly couple to their date only for a third figure to appear in the room, the odd amount of light was affecting her natural Faunus night vision making the sudden appearance of a third figure slightly alarming as the masculine figure moved with a silent grace and skill that many would envy.

Even through the odd assortment of light that prevented her Faunus night vision from working as it should she easily recognized Jaune even with his back turned and devoid of his usual apparel. Wearing simple civilian clothing and a large chefs smock could do little to hide his identity.

In a matter of moments Jaune had swept the table clear of all useless clutter piling it deftly onto a tray and departed towards the kitchen, two new dish's had appeared on the table their contents were a mystery to Blake but judging from the reaction the woman gave it was something special as her eyes seemed to mist up simply looking at the dish.

Feeling even more out of place than she had mere moments before Blake turned to leave through the curtain, intent on letting the elderly couple continue their date without her watching awkwardly from the side. As she turned to leave though she felt a light touch on her arm, instinctively she jumped at the touch as anyone would but recovered quickly when she realized it was only Jaune, he had somehow closed the distance with her silently, an impressive feat as he still carried the tray he had cleared to table with.

Jaune said nothing he simply smiled and cocked his head once to the side, a stiff meaningful motion that signified silently that he wanted her to follow, having no reason, not to Blake padded quietly along behind Jaune as he led her into the kitchen.

Entering the Kitchen she found the large room to be comfortably warm likely due to at least one visibly running oven, the light from inside being the main source of illumination in the room, at least until Jaune turned the lights on, having left them at a dim setting to not cause a stark contrast in lighting for the two diners who remained in the common area every time he would need to enter or exit the room.

"Your back really late." Jaune said as Blake watched him carry the tray away to one of the multiple sinks towards the back of the kitchen. Blake herself found herself being drawn towards the sole operating oven. The smell coming from it was entrancing.

"Yeah, we found some occupied Den's, nothing serious just a bunch of juveniles but it took far to long to clear them out."Her response sounded distracted to her own ears as she watched Jaune return, much quicker than she expected, with him he brought a pair of knives a loaf of bread as well a mixture of ingredients tucked into his arm's, juggling the mixture of items with ease.

"I figured it was something like that." Jaune said as he laid the items out on the counter before opening the oven and letting the smell that had been hiding inside escape fully, the powerful aroma seemingly unfazing the Blonde, but to Blake it rocked her senses, so great was it that she had to brace herself against a counter as her legs grew weak as she was enveloped by the divine aroma of flavor.

"I was planning on making a couple sandwiches and putting them aside for you with the leftovers since you missed the actual meal but since your back and I haven't quite gotten to that yet would you like one while it's still hot?" Jaune asked as he held a knife at the ready, prepared to begin immediately.

Blake blinked rapidly, the heady aroma having confused her mind and body she wasn't exactly sure what Jaune had said only that he was preparing to make something judging by the layout on the counter, only he seemed to be waiting for a reply from her before he begins, mentally cursing in frustration at not catching what he said she hoped silently that her response will get him to continue with what he appears to be preparing to do. "Yes, absolutely!" Blake felt a bit of desperation in her voice, it leaked an eagerness and desire that was very unlike her. That thought though was quickly forgotten as she watched Jaune go to work.

Blake could hear Jaune speaking, she wasn't sure if they were questions directed at her or simple idle conversation he was making as he worked, either way, she found herself unable to focus on his words hoped they weren't poinent questions she was ignoring.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity to her Jaune turned around, resting in his hands was a serving tray the held a single sandwich, one that appeared so perfectly molded that it looked to come from a commercial advertisement, like it was too good to eat, almost.

Jaune placed the tray infront of her and only after doing so did she notice that the tray had two other item's, one was a drink of some sort, it's smell was hard to discern as the aroma from the sandwich sought to hide anything else but eventually she pick up a light citrus smell from the beverage, and odd choice to complement the oven roasted beef but that mattered little, the other item was a container holding gravy, a dark brown in color which smelled much the same as the sandwich but slightly saltier, clearly I dipping sauce for the sandwich if she was inclined.

She wanted to invest int he meal immediately but somewhere in her mind decorum kicked it's was forward and halted her in her track's, allowing herself to think straight if only for a moment, long enough to thank Jaune. "This looks and smell's wonderful Jaune, thank you."

"No problem." Jaune said with a slight grin. "And don't worry about spacing out on me while I was making the sandwich, you must be tired, I'll leave you to your meal if you need anything I'll just be in the back finishing the last of the dishes."

With that Blake was alone, Jaune could be heard a ways behind her humming a tune she was not familiar with in between the quiet swishes of water. Putting Jaune and his task from her mind she focused on her meal, her mouth watering so greatly that she needed to swallow or risk drooling as the part of the mind the had kicked its way forward to thank Jaune was thrown aside.

Her first bite shut down her mind, this was unlike anything of Jaune's she had had previously, the sandwich's back in Menagerie or the most recent campfire cooked meals. Both had been impressive culinary works but they were dwarfed on a level she could not comprehend currently, a carefully prepared meal, in a proper kitchen seemed to bring out a whole new level of taste from Jaune that seemed peerless.

Her second and third bites were much the same as the first, so blissfully perfect that she didn't manage to savour the taste at all. With her fourth that changed as she managed not to swallow in an instant and let herself savour the taste for a moment, a contented sigh escaping. The remainder of the first half of the sandwich didn't last long though as spending time to savor any bite just made the desire for the next one even greater and before she knew it the first half was finished and while the meat had been juice filled and delicious her hand sought of the beverage Jaune had left behind as well.

Concern over the flavour lasted for only an instant as she took a sip and then a full draught, the citrus flavor not overpowering the lingering taste of the sandwich but instead seemingly reinvigorating it, so perfect was the beverage that she had to forcefully place the cup down, not wanting to empty the cup before finishing the other half of her sandwich and not having anything to wash that down with.

Picking up the second half of the sandwich Blake regarded it with a satisfied expression knowing full well it was going to be as perfect as the first half, however instead of starting right away she dipped a corner in the sauce Jaune had paired with the meal, the dark sticky gravy soaked into the bread.

Bracing herself she bit into the sandwich and her mind went blank, no, not simply blank, she lost a moment of her life, the sandwich was gone, thoroughly devoured by herself even though she did not remember eating it she also clearly knew that was what happened, a paradox inside her head, one that she couldn't fathom to solve.

The Sandwich might be gone, but the source was still nearby, Jaune had moved away from the position he had held earlier and was closer than before, not in her immediate proximity but close, it took her only a moment to locate him, her mind racing through a list of reasons, from pleading and begging to bribery or coercion to even threaten if it came to it for him to produce another sandwich.

Rising from her seat she took a step towards the turned back of the Blonde, making no noise as her mind wrestled to settle on how she wanted to acquire another bliss-inducing meal, as she approached ever so closer the decision was never made even as she misstepped and made a near-silent noise, one that normally no one would notice but currently the quiet kitchen's peace was interrupted with the slight shift of one of many wooden stools.

Blake froze as her mind was still unable to decide on her course of action and instead went blank as Jaune turned, revealing what he had been doing with his back turned, on the counter behind him sat around a dozen individually wrapped sandwiches.

"Done already Blake?" Jaune said, off hand as he turned back to his task. Pulling out a pair of bags split the sandwich's between the two and slid one across the counter towards Blake. "Here, those are yours." Jaune said as he picked up his own bag while his other hand worked in a blur quickly tucking away a few errant items on the counter into there correct places.

Blake looked at the bag on the counter her body yearning to tear it open and devour its contents but her decorum fought past her instincts once again and held that idea in check, the knowledge that she would have at least six more tastes of Jaune's cooking probably went a long way in helping restrain that impulse also. "Thank you Jaune, you didn't have to but I appreciate it." Blake reached out and grab the bag, a bit too quickly and with an amount of force that was unnecessary as the paper bag tore slightly but held together.

"Think nothing of it, I had more leftovers than I expected, Roast Beef apparently isn't that popular compared to some of the things I've made." Jaune said offhand as he headed towards the exit.

Blake followed along behind, disbelief in her mind that Jaune could ever produce leftovers, the thought of such a thing seemed blasphemous, but it also meant that she had something to take home with her tonight. So while it might be impossible to believe the simple fact that it turned out so well for herself she would hold back her opinion on what she may or may not think about the other people who Jaune cooked for.

Exiting the kitchen Blake watched as Jaune waved her farewell, he went towards the still dining couple, likely intending to see if they needed anything else before he retired for the evening as well. The sight gave Blake one final smile as she left through the curtain, quickly bounding towards her apartment.

* * *

 **Saturday, Early Morning, Blake's Apartment.  
**

* * *

Blake groaned in agony, contented self-inflicted agony, but agony none the less.

Rising from her bed the sheets being a bundled mess and her Yukata and Obi hung normally held tightly in place during sleep sat loosely along her frame, a night of tossing and turning with half-remembered dreams had sent her normally pristine bed and sleeping outfit into a state of disarray she was unaccustomed too.

With a groan of pain, so very unlike herself she made it to her feet and eventually to her kitchen where she surveyed the remains of the night before, what had once been a neat brown paper bag holding six carefully packaged sandwiches was now a strewn mess of ripped paper and empty saran wrap.

Regret was the emotion many would assume Blake would feel at this moment, instead it was anything but. However much her body protest and hurt at this moment she still relished every bite she had taken the night before, already her mind pushed aside the pain her body felt and instead looked toward the future hungrily.

Her mind spinning wonderful fantasies as he cleaned up her mess from the night before, unbeknownst to herself Blake was doing something she never imagined she could.

A gentle *PURR* echoed throughout her home.

* * *

 **I did not die and I did not forget about the story, any of them.**

 **This chapter was a long one to write and boy did it take its time, I don't even remember how many rewrites I did with the first half with Jaune and Weiss, followed by several stops and starts with Blake and Jaune.**

 **The Weiss and Jaune date never really changed from one iteration to the next it was simply a wording issue that I would finish it let it sit then come back and reread and hate it.**

 **The Blake and Jaune one was more of how I wanted this to be staged currently, from her being at the meal the entire time showing up late or missing it altogether. I settled on her eventually missing the meal altogether and having a private meal with Jaune, but I had to make it not intimate, I think I found that middle ground, I might be wrong and they will be people out there that think Blake is one step away from jump Jaune's bones. She's not, she doesn't see Jaune that way, currently, she is only 100% about his cooking.**

 **Anyways on to another subject, mostly because I will have people ask.**

 **Yes, I have had Penguin meat, Yes it can be awful smelling and tasting. Penguin is a pretty unique animal to eat, I have only had it a handful of times and in that handful or times it has had a pretty wide range of flavours, some could be quite overwhelming especially in the smell department luckily I haven't had that honor yet of some of the more pungent ways to prepare the bird, I have only had the so-called milder ways to prepare it and those were hard to stomach.**

 **That being said I find it hilarious that the awful tasting bird is somehow a favorite dish type of the entire kingdom of Atlas.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Vale, Blake's Apartment, Saturday.**

* * *

Blake stared at her recently cleaned and organized apartment in satisfaction, pleased with the work to get it back into the condition she desired after the mess she had left it the night before.

She felt slightly embarrassed at just how large the mess had been as well as when she found some of the strewn wrapping paper, she had a troubling time trying to figure out how exactly one of the sandwich wrappers had become wrapped and twisted around her ceiling fan, eventually just chalking it up to an overzealous unwrapping.

With a satisfied nod her eye's glanced at her wall clock, she had spent her morning sleeping late, something she normally did not do, the food likely causing her early morning lethargy, and by the time she finished cleaning the day had moved into early afternoon.

Looking at her fridge she decided against having a snack before belatedly beginning her day when her stomach rumbled in protest, it preferring to remain empty rather than tempting fate by adding anything to itself, though a quick image of coffee appeared in her mind and without a rumble of dissent she left her apartment hurriedly heading to street level intending to first find a coffee.

The 'ShoeBox' was well positioned in Vale, it was much closer to the shopping, food, and entertainment sectors of the city than anything else she had looked at. Sure there were a few options that would have put her even closer but they were well beyond her current price range. That and they lacked a certain perk that her current home did.

Not having an opportunity to really familiarize herself with what surrounded her new home she found herself wandering aimlessly in search of a coffee shop, the once present desire for the beverage tapering off and instead being replaced by her more common beverage of choice, Tea. While she did not know a location for a coffee Shop she did at one point in time have a favorite spot for Tea in Vale, unsure on whether the shop still existed or not after all these years Blake quickly checked her Scroll, finding happily that not only did it still exist the owner had managed to not only stay afloat during the fall of both Beacon and Vale but had prospered with the rebuilding of the kingdom and now had several locations throughout the massive city, unfortunately, none close to her home.

Turning on the spot after deciding which one she wanted to visit, a quick search on her Scroll had found one right next to a new and Used bookstore, she was off. It certainly wasn't the closest one but neither was it the farthest, and it was situated perfectly for her tastes, easy access to her favorite beverage and past time as well as a nice place to unwind and relax if she needed it, the place was likely far off the path of interest for her normal companions, barring Weiss she supposed, A nice cup of Tea and a good Book were something the two had in common, even if there choice in literature differed.

Arriving at the shop Blake smiled appreciately as the success of the owner hadn't outwardly changed the feeling of Cafe, a simple Black and White storefront, the interior was well lit with soft white lights but that mattered little to her she was more interested in the outside patio, happy to see it was still strikingly similar to what is was in the past, single small tables with a pair of chairs, a brief memory flited through her mind remembering her first visit, and the conversation she had with Sun so many years ago, with a fond smile Blake stepped inside.

* * *

 **Home of Ren & Nora, Late Afternoon.**

* * *

Weiss playfully bounced Sif on her knee, the young girl giggling happily, a stark offset to two adults in the room as while Weiss was actively engaging Sif she was also patently watching a recording of a meeting Ren had been at earlier in the day, one that could decide the future of her company, though very unlikely.

The video abruptly cut off as she watched three figures file out of a room that she recognized as the primary conference room at the RFTDC headquarters. Furrowing her brow slightly her mind spun with ideas on just how much this one meeting could benefit her own company but also be the final nail in her father's company coffin.

"So what do you make of their offer?" Ren asked breaking his silence finally now that the entire meeting recording had played out, Ren recorded all his meetings, either in audio or video so that not only he could show them in full to Weiss but also so that he could review them whenever necessary. His practice of doing so was apparently both uncommon and disconcerting to many people, to those people he learned early on that they were the ones that he would not like to work with, a sentiment that Weiss mirrored.

"It is a strong offer," Weiss replied quietly her mind still taking it in.

Her fellow startup dust companies from Vacuo and Mistral want to enter into an arrangement, neither company had the same benefit as she did of having their kingdoms entire industry locked down. Vacuo and Mistral were still open to the global market and which put them to compete directly against her father, a formidable task even for how badly off his company looks to the world at large.

The RFTDC still had a little over a year before the council would begin allowing outside companies back into the kingdom, now even those contracts exist they can be ended early if said industry gains a majority vote to open themselves up early. Her company being the only dust supplier to the entire kingdom meant doing so was nothing but a drawback unlike some industries that did so as soon as they were able to.

"But I don't really see how it would benefit us in the long run." Weiss said aloud thinking pragmatically, accepting the deal to vote to open dust trade early would earn her company an immediate large sum of Lien, enough to nearly double her quarterly profits but giving her little after that, cheap access to a few dust varieties that their own mines were lacking. It didn't take any sort of genius to figure out that while the deal was strong initially it had little to offer afterward.

"I don't think we should accept, I can't deny having the extra capital to get our newest mine into operation sooner wouldn't be a bonus but I also feel the offer is far too conveniently timed to be a coincidence."

"You still think someone on the board is giving out operational knowledge?" Ren asked in an off-hand manner, accepting Weiss's decision on the deal with no complaint as in truth the company was her's to run.

"I don't think anything, I know someone is selling company details." Weiss said, not even upset as her arms were appropriated by Sif and made to loosely wave around eliciting a happy giggle from the young girl and making a small smile appear on Weiss. "Not that it really matter's if someone is selling details, we have nothing worth hiding currently."

The small smile turned larger and clearly smug, Weiss couldn't help enjoying the knowledge that any information her competitors were paying for could easily be learned at any of her quarterly investor meetings. Her company had nothing to hide and she intended to keep it that way.

"Is that everything? Usually, you wouldn't bother bringing this up until your next courier and this time you asked Nora to bring me over after our workout."

"There are a few other things." Ren looked at his daughter for a moment. "Sif sweety could you give me and Auntie Weiss a little privacy."

With a bizarre grace unbefitting a child Sif slipped off Weiss's lap and politely excused herself.

"Your daughter is a marvel," Weiss said as the door clicked shut, admiring how well behaved and adjusted the girl was to both her parent's personalities, definitely leaning very heavily towards Ren in personality though, Nora being far more apparent in the twin's. "Though you have never asked Sif to leave during any of these get-togethers, so excuse me if I'm not at least a little concerned," Weiss mentioned with a bit of apprehension at this slight change in custom.

"No need to be overly concerned," Ren said reassuringly. "I'm simply passing along some news that might upset my daughter." Ren leaned back in his chair giving no real indication of his feelings. "I recently spoke with Oscar, it was initially going to be in regards to the upcoming appearances from Ruby here in Vale but that changed when he told me Ruby left." Ren said simply.

"What do you mean Ruby left?" Weiss asked, keeping herself calm thanks in part to Ren's relaxed attitude.

"She finally grew tired enough of her status to abandon it completely, and now no one knows where she went. I haven't heard from her at all and judging by your reaction neither have you." Ren sighed slightly, hoping for a different outcome.

"No, I haven't." Weiss wasn't sure exactly how to react, she was elated to learn Ruby had decided to escape her celebrity life but at the same time terrified how the world at large might react to the news. A migraine formed almost immediately as she thought how the news would react when they finally learn the news, rumors, and mistruths would spread immediately, causing an immediate increase in Grimm activity. Weiss rubbed her temple for a moment, "I assume you tried to reach Ruby?"

"I have and her scroll is out of range of any tower's service area."

"Great she's missing somewhere in the wilderness, maybe dead for all we know, how can she be so thoughtless." Weiss felt her concern shift into frustration at her former team leaders consistent inability to consider how others might feel if she went missing.

"I doubt she is in any danger, she is easily one of the most powerful Huntress's alive in the world today, it would take something special to cause her to lose a fight. I think more likely that she is traveling, trying to get back to Vale discretely to, first of all, have some privacy and to surprise us." Ren said dismissing Weiss's concern and frustration as a non-factor.

"If you are right then wouldn't she already be here in Vale? It hardly seems like an intelligent plan to surprise us well after the fact that her disappearance might become globally known."

"That I cannot really answer, my only guess is that bullhead travel would require her to present all her identification, so hiding her identity would be impossible but if she were to travel by boat it would be far easier, Ruby would have the Lien to pay for a level of privacy."

Weiss had to hand it to Ren, his calm, rational mind did come up with a very probably way in how Ruby would have handled herself after leaving Oscar and her entourage behind. "Fine I'll attempt to not worry but who else knows?"

"Headmaster Goodwitch, Nora, and now you. I'm not sure who to really spread this information too, I found out simply by accident." Ren left out a slow exhale, clearly, his mind was not a calm about this as he believably let on.

"I would love to ruin Ruby's surprise for making me worry for even a second but that is not fair to her, if she is intending to return to Vale and surprise us then I say we let her have that. For at least as long as it takes for our friends to become suspicious or concerned." Weiss wasn't sure how often the others spoke with Ruby but she doubted it would take much time for them to become suspicious of her absence in media, then a simple scroll call would cause them considerable panic if it gave an out of service range message. "I assume that was everything?" Weiss asked as she stood assuming the meeting was finished.

"Almost." Ren pulled open a drawer on his desk and pulled out a small box, one with no decoration aside from a stamp that marked that it was from her company. "While our new mine isn't in operation yet, as you well know, but core samples have been continuously pulled in preparation and, well I think you should have a look." Ren said as he turned the box around, the clasp keeping it shut already undone simply waiting for the lid to be pushed open.

Weiss immediately forgot about her desire to leave, not that it was a strong one, she enjoyed Ren's company but she was wishing for a shower in the privacy of her own home, the quick wash at the gym earlier did not satisfy her body. Reaching forward she opened the lid and looked in, immediately discovering what Ren wanted her to see.

Inside the box sat five dust crystals, three of which were rather plain to the naked eye but a trained huntsman knew better, they were clear and perfect, devoid of any discoloration that would impede their performance, whether that was as dust ammunition or a civil activity. Civil activities are what most dust is used for only a tiny tiny fraction of all dust mined in the world is used by huntsmen but crystals like this were normally highly sought after to make superior huntsmen equipment or weaponry, a great find for her company.

The two remaining dust crystals were something else entirely, each crystal was not a solid color but instead a mixture of two, artificial mixed dust crystals were unstable and dangerous, having to be handled with the utmost care lest they cause serious harm to the person handling them and anyone else nearby. Naturally created mixed crystals, on the other hand, are perfectly stable, it would take a minimum of striking one with a hammer to set a natural crystal off and even then that would not always be the case.

Naturally mixed Dust crystals were rare and powerful, and also very expensive once the effect they caused was learned, always something staggeringly powerful in some way or form.

Weiss inspected the two crystals, a yellow-gold, and white dust mixture, wondering to herself what exactly the result of the two mixed would be. "Have any tests been run on these yet?"

"No, we don't exactly have a foundry capable of testing mixed crystals and I figured you would probably be more knowledgeable about this subject than most, being that the only mixed crystals ever discovered previously came from the SDC."

"If that is the case do you mind if I take these?" Weiss motioned to the box.

"Feel free they are yours technically anyways." Ren said with a lighthearted smile, also a bit of relief to not have to figure out what to do with the contents any further now that Weiss was taking them off his hands.

* * *

 **Weiss's apartment, Evening.**

* * *

Relaxed and refreshed after a much needed invigorating shower Weiss pulled out the dust sample box and carefully inspected the two unique crystals. One being golden and white while the second being nearly identical in coloration with a slight trace of red coiled into it.

Searching through her scroll for any kind of index on mixed dust crystals brought forward a swath of information of exotic dust crystals, both mixed crystals and just exceeding rare pure crystals. Though for all the information her scroll provided her it did not tell her exactly what her two crystals might do. All it ended up doing was making the pair more valuable in her eyes as the Gold colored dust was rare on its own.

Tired from her day Weiss gave up on her investigation early and packed everything up neatly, intent on taking everything to Beacon in the morning, hoping that someone there might be able to help her or at least point he in the right direction.

She found herself considering retiring early when her scroll flashed a quick message one that made her grin ear to ear as her plans changed and she now waited in eager anticipation for her awkward blonde knight to arrive.

* * *

 **Shoebox, Jaune Arc Apartment, Late Evening.  
**

* * *

Blake couldn't believe where she was or what she was doing right now, and to make matters worse she couldn't convince herself that she should leave, at least not without her prize.

She had come across Jaune leaving for someplace else for the evening as she arrived home herself, her arm's filled with brand new books.

She had only exchanged a few words in passing to her fellow huntsman but it was enough for her to learn he would be off the premises until some time the following day.

Gaining entry had been a simple thing, so simple that the electronic lock wasn't even likely to show any evidence of being tampered with, something that gave Blake a huge amount of relief, if she couldn't prevent her body from doing this she at least didn't want to be found out that she was breaking into an apartment to steal day old sandwiches.

Once she was inside it was a simple matter of collecting her goal, they would be in Jaune's fridge which she would be able to locate even without her night vision as all the apartments had an identical layout.

She appropriated the bag immediately as it sat prominantly in the fridge, the top still wrapped shut to indicate that Jaune hadn't even had a single one to himself yet, after making sure nothing was out of place from her clandestine infiltration of Jaune's apartment she left escaping down the coorodor to her own home, where once she was safely inside her body allowed her mind a medicrum of control not anywhere near enough to return the stolen goods as she was already warming one up the smell of the sandwich appearing as it grew warmer and her mind getting lost in the heady aroma, soon everything vanished in a blur.

* * *

 **Junior's Club, Late Evening.**

* * *

Yang stared into her glass, the contents long since gone. She could feel a sole set of eye's staring at her which was uncommon for her, at least in this environment anyway. Normally if she was at Juniors club it was to have a good time and to be fair tonight was all about having a good time.

Her company was having a great time. Yang watched as Coco Adel easily managed four lovestruck idiots into serving her every single whim. An act she was normally quite adept at herself, though tonight she couldn't find her grove and abandoned the game to Coco alone.

A couple of bolder club goers had approached her at the bar but it was made very clear to them she was not interested, and when one that had too much to drink thought she was simply playing hard to tried to push his luck he found himself politely escorted from the club by a pair of men in black suits with red ties, to that Yang gave Junior a grateful nod, even moving closer to him, which led to this current situation.

Yang staring into an empty glass and Junior growing more nervous by the moment.

The odd scene finally ended when Yang gently placed the glass down and slid it away from herself, not bothering to order anything else, a definite sign to herself that she was in a mood, what mood she wasn't exactly certain.

That wasn't true though, she just refused to admit it, Jaune was her problem.

It had all started with an innocent conversation with Blake her first day in Vale, simple girl talk nothing more.

Then there was the story told at the shooting range, followed by her own half-baked as well as failed attempt to seduce Jaune during the mine mission. She still found herself kicking herself for not finding another opportunity to try and get Jaune's attention during that time. Jaune was the team leader and kept himself and everyone else busy, himself especially what with helping Blake train back into shape.

Blake.

Yang was confident it was the alcohol talking in her head but even that knowledge didn't stop her from thinking that Blake and Jaune spent just a little to much time together alone during that mission. Enough that maybe the unthinkable could have happened and Blake and Jaune might have gotten together. In her booze fogged mind it seemed so plausible, it explained the eagerness to move into the 'ShoeBox' as well, something that no sane woman would do, of that she was positive, it was to damn small.

Yang wasn't sure what happened but she noticed she was once again holding another empty glass, not only that but there was a pair of them sitting directly in front of her as well both equally empty.

An active and aware portion of her mind filled her in that her traitorous mechanical arm had been ordering her drinks without her knowledge as well as forcing her to drink them, an impressive feat for a limb that hung limply at her side as her remaining flesh and blood arm slowly swirled the ice around in the empty glass it held.

Sending her mechanical arm a contemptable look Yang rose to her feet, the effect of the additional alcohol barely even affecting her. A trait shared by all huntsmen was a seemingly inhuman tolerance for booze. Still, if you drank enough of the stuff you could become drunk, Qrow was a clear example that was possible.

Tossing a handful of Lien on the Counter along with the key's to her bike, she clearly understood that she shouldn't drive home in her condition, not for her own safety but for everyone else.

Junior scooped up the Lien in a moment along with the key to her bike. "Do you need one of my boys to give you a ride home?" Junior asked as he would with any huntsmen or civilian in his establishment.

"No, keep your boys here, it's still early enough for me to catch a bus." Yang said as she walked away from the counter, swiftly finding herself outside with no fanfare, aside from an acknowledging nod from Coco.

Vale while hot during the day's at night the breeze coming in from the sea cooled things down rapidly, enough that she could see hints of her breath with every exhale, the cold was an annoying problem others had to deal with, she simply had to crank up the heat slightly and no matter how much skin she exposed she would never feel cold.

Being slightly inebriated meant it took her a few additional moments to adjust her body to the right temperature, once comfortable she sat down on one of many benches waiting for the next bus, surrounded by people with the same plan.

Not knowing when the next bus would arrive her thoughts slipped towards Jaune and Blake once again.

She felt jealous as her mind painted a clear and vivid image of the two as a couple. She couldn't remember ever being jealous of anyone before, well at least legitimately jealous anyways, least of all a friend as close as Blake.

 _'I should be happy for her, for both of them. I mean I wasted years not even taking a serious shot so I really have no reason to be upset.'_ Yang leaned against the back of the bench trying to not be jealous of the obvious relationship her two friends had. _'Really though, Blake moves fast, guess when the girl knows what she wants she goes for it, no more holding back for her. Really I person should use that kind of approach when you know what you want anyway. No second guessing yourself, stopping and stalling, overthinking things that don't even need to be thought about.'_

Pausing in her own internal musings she stood up from the bench in an instant a sudden epiphany appeared. _'Maybe Blake hasn't made her move yet, I mean I haven't seen the be even remotely romantic together and I know Jaune wouldn't be able to help himself.'_ Before her mind even finished the thought her body was moving swiftly away from the bus stop, it would only take her in the wrong direction, she was moving toward the 'ShoeBox' intent on confronting Jaune, making her intentions clear, if he and Blake were together so be it she would stand aside but if Blake hadn't made a move yet she was going to beat her to the punch!

* * *

Yang found herself in a state of shock.

She had just arrived at the 'ShoeBox' entering the apartment building with a pass she received from Jaune ages ago that saw little to no use aside from occasional random visits. Entering was simple and tracing the easy path to her destination had been a breeze, one that suddenly turned against her, for as she rounded the corner to the hall that would take her to Jaune's door she spied her Partner and friend stealthily leaving Jaune's apartment.

Ducking immediately behind the corner she had just rounded she peeked an eye out again, to confirm what she had seen as well as make sure Blake hadn't seen her.

If Blake had spotted her she didn't show any sign of it, instead, the only sign Yang could see from Blake was a flushed face, that coupled with her cradling something in her hands, in a way that spoke she didn't want anyone to see, Yang deduced that it was likely underwear.

She watched as Blake traveled down the hall away from her before she sank to the floor, upset that her suspicions were confirmed, but not as upset as she figured she would be, instead, after several long minutes passed an excited smile graced her lips.

Returning to her feet Yang flashed the smile down the hall first at Jaune's closed door then at the corner Blake had vanished behind.

* * *

 **The return of the errant Writer.**

 **Yup, I'm back and with a story update. I won't bore anyone with the details of where I have been because I haven't been anywhere aside from buried under a mountain of work, coupled with home renovations.  
**

 **Anyways about the story. This chapter was fun to write if a little frustrating on how exactly I wanted to convey what was going on, usually I try to have several characters interacting directly with each other to move things forward and I find that easier to write.  
**

 **I attempted to be subtle with some foreshadowing but I'm sure the more observant amount you will find it more me beating you over the head with a hammer but hey, I tried.**

 **Anyways, chapters done and I have actual spare time coming my way so maybe will have another update in the coming weeks.**

 **Like always lemme know what you think, love it hate it, or just tell me my grammar sucks, I enjoy the comments regardless.**

* * *

 **Tidyfrog : Hey he's not dead, I don't really have much to add aside from that. He's been busy, not just with work and renovations but he has been helping me with a couple of my stories.**

 **Anyway's ADVENT Failure! will be seeing an update this weekend, so anyone who remembers that story of Blackwal's please look forward to that.**

* * *

Hei Xiong, or Junior as most everyone on Vale knew him sat alone in his closed club, the last revelers had left in the tiny hours of the morning and most of his staff shortly after that, now all that remained were a handful of his goons the Malachite sisters and himself.

He wasn't sure exactly why he was still here himself, normally he ducked out well before midnight. It had been years since he had done the whole night, after all, why would the most powerful criminal in Vale need to bother himself about running a single nightclub night after night.

Junior laughed to himself as he described himself as the most powerful criminal in Vale. Vale hardly considered himself a criminal at all, to them he was almost a greater celebrity than Ruby Rose, almost. Maybe if he had played a more active role in the final fight for Beacon he would be, not that he would want that kind of attention.

Junior still found it hard to believe how his fortunes had turned around, especially how it all started. Losing a handful of his best men to a dust robbery gone bad, having his club trashed on the very same night, costing him a small fortune to repair. Luckily that had been for the most part the end of it, Roman had somehow enlisted the White Fang into helping him, how he had he never discovered, nor did he really care too.

Still, he had to play host to several meetings between Roman and people who he assumed were the money behind the operation, he never learned the woman's name, he only knew her by her looks, beautiful and deadly, though he always got the impression that deadly was the stronger feeling.

His job of playing host to their meetings ended with the Fall of Beacon, the Kingdom of Vale erupted into chaos. Roman had been arrested week's before the attack and it was never confirmed, but rumors suggested that he had died in the attack, the Atlas airship he was being held on had crashed with no survivors, most bodies to chared from fire to be identified. Rumors that to him were all but confirmed when an exhausted Neo appeared on is doorstep, the young woman was taken in and cared for by the Malachite sisters before vanishing after a few days.

When Beacon fell, everyone assumed Vale would be next. By that he meant the criminal community assumed Vale would be next, like rats aboard a sinking ship criminals both large and small abandoned the kingdom, leaving what they assumed was a finished kingdom.

Those who left had nearly been right too, The remnants of Vales council was sorely out of there league to deal with this level of catastrophe, the attack had sapped the kingdom of one of it's greatest assets, Professional Huntsmen.

The attack itself didn't cause a great number of casualties, more it simply increased the demand, a demand the supply could never match.

The Council almost had a grasp on the situation, until Aid from Atlas simply vanished. They closed their borders without warning, leaving Vale without any options. Mistral had been silent since the Vytal festival, dealing with problems of their own and anything leaving Vacuo never made it very far, the influx of criminals from Vale made any sort of supplies leaving the Desert kingdom prime targets.

Huntsmen spread thin, Police barely keeping the scared population from full-fledged panic, it was amazing the Kingdom held on for those first four months.

Four months and Vale had reached the tipping point, the fear and unrest was clear on everyones minds.

It all started with a Fire, the cause of which was a simple electrical short. The fire caused a panic, responders were slow to arrive, and when they did an entire block was ablaze and it was growing worse with every moment. Fear grabbed ahold of the city that was already at their tipping point.

Grimm were pulled in for miles, like moths to a flame, only in this case the moths cared nothing for the fire. Even the horde of Grimm that squated in the Hall's of Beacon, quiet for so many months couldn't resist the new stench of fear and began to descend from the cliff.

A war erupted in the streets.

Overtaxed Huntsmen, rose to safeguard their kingdom, defending the firemen as best they could as the firemen, in turn, fought desperately to save the city.

He had watched all this unfold, Junior had been one of the few criminals to not abandon Vale, instead, he choose to stay, he saw an opportunity that those who left couldn't. He had knowledge, he knew the location of every single one of Roman Torchwicks stashes, Warehouses full of equipment, Dust, Food. You name it, Roman stole it because someone else would buy it.

He had looted them all, it took time, time in which the city suffered, he didn't care though, he was simply collecting his prizes, with everything gathered he was planning to leave as well, just another Rat leaving a sinking ship, though he would be the King Rat, sailing away atop a mountain of rich's while the ones that fled early escaped with scraps.

Vale thought him a hero for what he did next, a glorious champion that rode out in their darkest hour and saved them from the Grimm that were at their door.

That's definitely how the Council portrayed him after the fight was over and after everyone viewed him as a hero.

No, how it started was his Club and the connected warehouses were in the direct path of both the Grimm and the encroaching fire, if the buildings were empty then he would have had no problem abandoning them to whichever threat arrived first but they weren't, the buildings housed every item he had taken from Romans vacant stashes.

He had to step up and defend what was his, else he would be done, Leaving Vale with nothing now was tantamount to suicide, those who left earlier wouldn't be eager to let another criminal try and carve out a piece inside there much smaller empires, a fight that he could have won with Romans resources was impossible without them.

So he chose to fight, among his pilfered horde of loot were huge quantities of both weapons and Dust, he armed every one of his goons with state of the art weapons and armor, and sent them to help fight the Grimm, his men, foolishly loyal as they were asked no questions and followed his orders.

They hit the wall of Grimm like a freight train, turning what had been a desperate struggle to simply hold ground into a winning engagement.

After his goons were dispatched to attack the Grimm he made a tough choice.

No one in his employ could use dust, honestly, he only knew of a few huntsmen in Vale who were any good with the stuff and most would be impossible to find, except for one.

Glynda Goodwitch. Junior remembered groaning in agony at the thought of handing over precious, valuable Dust over to anyone let alone a woman with as fierce of reputation as her, but he had no choice, it was either give her the dust she would need to deal with the fire and save the city and by proxy his stash of spoils or watch it all burn.

Obviously, he made the choice to save everything at the cost of the dust, along with most of his stash of goods.

The city had been saved and due to his contributions, he liked that word, used in the right context I could mean so much, his contributions amounted to pretty much everything he had taken being confiscated, he was left with next to nothing aside from a shift in reputation.

That shift from criminal to unlikely hero was enough for him to start anew, he was now trapped in Vale and choose to accept that, using what remained of his assets to assist where he could, not really making much of an impact until the second Battle of Beacon.

Rumors had spread through Remnant of some sort of conflict, though to the survivors in Vale the rumors were only that, the kingdom was hard pressed for reliable news from the outside world. That lack of news left them wholly unprepared for that battle.

An explosion had rocked the city in the dead of night, waking the city. All eye's had turned to Beacon as the gigantic frozen Dragon Grimm had come to life.

Even as far away as his home Junior could see the scope of the fight, the Gigantic Dragon Grimm was locked in combat with several powerful huntsmen, too powerful.

A mere four Huntsmen held the beast in a stalemate. Neither side strong enough to defeat the other.

Records of how long the fight lasted varied wildly depending on who was talking some people claiming the fight lasted for days, others that it was only minutes. He himself had a slightly more accurate idea. The fight lasted almost a full hour, enough time for him to foolishly gather what men he could, arm them and head toward the school.

What drove him to do that he wasn't sure, he could confidently describe himself as a self serving coward and he was proud of that fact, either way when he arrived at Beacon the Dragon was dead, along with most of the Huntsmen who fought it, the only survivor was Ruby Rose, the other three had perished in the fight.

Again all the fighters being dead aside from Ruby wasn't accurate, there were others who had also been at Beacon, fighting another battle, one that still took place below the school, a fight he found himself participating in.

That encounter still had him waking up in cold sweats at night, the scope of power of the being they fought in the cavernous hall baffled the mind, some abomination, a Grimm in human form, white and color.

Any impact he made in the fight was negligible but again he was lauded as a hero.

After that Vale emptied of Grimm for a time, and an old nuisance returned.

Vale was safe and redeveloping, an easy target for people looking to expand their criminal operations, or so they thought.

He was already in Vale though, and he knew it was only a matter of time after Vale stabilized and began working toward rebuilding itself that people like him would reappear.

When they inevitably did they were met with a rude awakening, Vale, the entirety of the City was under his protection.

He had been patient after his spoils had been taken away, biding his time and making connections as he was hailed as a hero, his influence grew further after the second Battle of Beacon, he had friends in high places now, councilmembers and Huntsmen owing favors all over the city.

Now he couldn't call in those favors to do anything criminal but when it came to stopping other criminals he was all too happy to turn on his kin.

One would assume this would have painted a fairly large target on his back but thats where his nightclub came into effect. His reputation as a hero of sorts brought in a lot of protection, he constantly found himself playing host to dozens of huntsmen every night.

If anyone was interested in collecting on bounties placed on his head by other criminals then they would have to contend with a persuasive argument not too.

Eventually, criminals stopped trying to get into Vale.

Junior stopped his musings, it was fun to remember how exactly his life had changed but it did little to change the fact that he was still a criminal, albeit one that received a fairly blind eye from both Police and Huntsmen alike, barring he doesn't do anything that would require a serious investigation.

Standing slowly he felt stiff joints stretch and relax, a rush of endorphins making him sigh contentedly.

The sigh turned into a smile as he let himself into one of many VIP rooms in his club, intending to make use of it for a shower and a nap, his old body deciding both were things he needed.

His path was stopped as he found the room occupied, sitting in a plush seat sat a figure that made infrequent trips to and from Vale.

"Hello, Neo."

* * *

 **First off, Yes, The part with Junior is part of the story.**

 **That extra bit did two things for me. First it allowed me to tell a bit of the backstory of what happened in Vale in the 10 years, second, it allowed me a way to introduce Neo without it feeling like a forced interaction with the main cast.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Early Sunday Morning, Weiss's Apartment.**

* * *

Jaune wasn't sure of the time, his regular relaxed awakening had been halted by his Scroll receiving a call, several calls actually.

He had eventually extracted himself from his partner's warm embrace, he was quite surprised the incessant noise from his Scroll had not also woken up Weiss. He was almost ready to congratulate himself on utterly wearing Weiss out until he saw the faintest flicker of an eyelid and knew she was simply pretending to sleep still.

"Morning beautiful," Jaune leaned over and kissed her on the shoulder, the only part of Weiss's form that was above the sheets and also wouldn't give him a mouthful of hair, the gentle kiss went unanswered for but a moment before the prone form of Weiss stretched full under on the sheets, an image that even obscured by the sheets had Jaune's heart going a beat faster.

"Hello handsome," Weiss responded as she swept her hair from her face as she gracefully moved into a sitting position, bringing the sheets with her to keep herself warm, even then she shivered ever so slightly at how cold she liked to keep her bedroom. Aside from the slight shiver Weiss ignored the cold instead sending a loathing look towards where Jaune stood, haphazardly fishing through the pockets of his pants trying to find his Scroll, the device that she blamed for ruining her pleasant sleep. "So whos responsible for ruining our morning?" The simple question was punctuated with a yawn as she slipped from the covers, hastily pulling a soft cotton robe on, the soft material was welcomingly warm.

Jaune eventually found the pocket that held his scroll, at least on the third time checking it. Expanding it to its full size he checked his history, at first blinking in confusion as several of the call's came from a number he did not recognize, though the one at the bottom he did. "I'm not sure what this one number that called wanted but the most recent one is the Huntsman office, though not Neptune's extension." As Jaune finished checking the history his Scroll it surprised him by vibrating as if on cue, a text message appearing on the screen.

 _'Huntsman Jaune Arc,_

 _Your services have been requested on behalf of Headmaster Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy, Please report to Huntsmen Dispatch Facility by 0900 this morning. Come prepared for immediate departure.'_

Jaune found himself blinking rapidly as he reread the admittedly short message. Tired as his mind was, and not truly registering the message it at least did cause him to check the time, an action that put his mind to ease somewhat as it was still well before nine in the morning, several hours in fact. "I think I have a mission." Jaune said finally.

"You don't sound so sure of that?"

"I'm honestly not," Jaune tossed his Scroll to Weiss allowing her to read through the message herself. "I've never had the Huntsman office contact me directly before and like I said I don't recognize the other number that called multiple times."

Weiss caught the Scroll and first read the message once, her brow creasing slightly, wondering what sort of mission Glynda could need Jaune for, the academy had a catalog of both skilled and powerful Huntmen at its disposal without requesting outside assistance. She then checked the other number that had called, her eye's widening slightly as she recognized something about it. She didn't recognize the number but instead how the numbers read out across the scroll, the pattern being identical to her Sister's contact line.

"The other call came from an Atlas Military Scroll, though it has a Vale number." Weiss paused for a moment. "Those are uncommon to find outside of the top Brass of Atlas Military."

An audible groan escaped Jaune's lips. I groan that any Vale Huntsman would likely mimic with the same information, likely Vacuo and Mistral as well. Dealing with Atlas on any level was paramount to pulling teeth, everything they did had a very structured order, an order that had become even more rigid after all the conflict the world had suffered during the escalated fighting years prior.

"I know how you feel," Weiss said apologetically, not caring for her birth nation anymore either, barring a few personal acquaintances her father hadn't ruined she couldn't care less what happened with the Northern Kingdom anymore. "But there is a silver lining, while I'm sure this call came from an Atlas Military Scroll the number is definately from inside Vale."

"I guess that is something at least," Jaune said as he finished getting dressed. The clothes had still been clean and he had intended to use Weiss's shower before donning them again but with his summons to the Huntsman office he needed to get home and gather his gear, the distance between his home and Weiss's being enough that if he hurried he might have enough time for a quick shower and hopefully a bite to eat. "Probably limits that number to Glynda, or maybe Ciel."

"I doubt Glynda would use an Atlas scroll so you can probably narrow that down to Ciel alone."

Jaune groaned again, although this time in surprise as Weiss had surprised him with a short intense kiss.

"You best get going."

"Kicking me out are you?" Jaune grinned as he unbuttoned one button on his shirt, the action received an appreciative look from Weiss but also ended with her fastening it again.

"Absolutely I'm kicking you out." Weiss grinned impishly. "Mostly cause I rather not have a highly trained and determined Atlas Agent tear down my front door looking for you!" With that Weiss vanished into her bathroom, the sound of running water was heard almost immediately.

Jaune stood alone in Weiss's bedroom for only a moment before he departed, he smiled while shaking his head, the thought of Ciel breaking down the door into Weiss's home all to easy to visualize.

* * *

 **Sunday morning, Inside a Bullhead traveling away from Vale.**

* * *

Jaune slowly rotated a dial on the console in front of himself, eventually, it reached his desired location and in doing so the Bullhead he was piloting leveled out nicely, going from its previous state of maximum thrust to a much gentler gliding speed. He knew he had no real reason to open up the Bullhead as much as he did but he so rarely had the privilege to fly one of Beacon's aircraft that he couldn't resist the temptation.

The Bullhead Beacon provided for their assignment was a military issue, meant for speed and maneuverability than anything else, though aside from those two differences it was identical to a regular Bullhead, well a huntsman Bullhead, it had a small armament of weapons. Weapons that any Huntsman knew was next to useless in an actual fight with Grimm. The missiles couldn't lock onto Grimm and the Gun's were only slightly better, still, the running joke was that any Grimm that was killed by a Bullhead was likely blind and deaf to allow a Bullhead close enough to kill itself.

Enjoying the moment was over and now it was back to business, as he slowly corrected the preplanned flight path that the airships computer had plotted out, the correction was slower than what an experienced pilot could manage but Jaune had the ship back on course in moments, one of the multitudes of monitors indicating when he had achieved the proper heading.

With a practiced motion, Jaune hit the sequence of switches that put the Bullhead into autopilot, with a slight shudder the machine switched over and Jaune reclined in his seat.

"Pretty fancy flying."

Jaune turned his head towards the person who sat in his co-pilot seat, Coco Adel, the fashionable woman had no piloting experience that had earned her the seat. She had claimed it because she claimed it was comfier than the chair's in the back, quieter too. While she had looked immaculate as ever it hadn't been hard to figure out Coco had had a late night and an early morning, her glass's couldn't completely hide the bags under her eyes and if that wasn't enough she had arrived with a tray of coffee's, none of which she offered to share. "Hardly. Flying in a straight line with the engines maxed isn't exactly hard."

"Yeah true, but to someone without the ability to do so it seems pretty impressive." Coco replied, shifting in her seat, the action allowing her room to rest her head against the wall of the cockpit, a position that she somehow made look comfortable.

"I agree, not everyone is capable or piloting these crafts and I would suspect far fewer do so when they have a well-documented history of motion sickness." The voice of Ren filled his ears as the retired Huntsman chimed in on the conversation.

"Indeed, it is quite the impressive challenge to overcome." The final occupant of the Bullhead also felt the need to chime in. Velvet Scarletina unfastened herself from her seat as soon as the aircraft became fully stable.

"And your one to know all about challenges," Jaune replied, not needing to see Velvet to know that once shy and cautious Huntress was now a very powerful and confident woman, and not just in terms of her being able to snap in half anyone who might be racist against her. Now she is confident enough to back those that would still attempt to harass her or anyone else be it Human or Faunus with simply her words alone.

"So fearless leader, what exactly is Beacon's assignment for us that has us dragging a retired Huntsman back into service, among other things." Coco gestured towards Ren who took no offense from the words, he himself had stated an identical sentiment when they had met at the Huntsmen offices.

Velvet paused for a moment, her demeanor changing from her being relaxed around her friends to one of a leader. Glynda had assigned her leader of this expedition during the short meeting at the Huntsman Office, While she was a confident person now she still had very little leadership experience, at least in comparison to two of the Huntsmen she was now in charge of, Coco being her former leader made the appointment even more awkward.

"A week ago while the Spring and Summer maidens were exploring Salem's abandoned territory they discovered one of the missing Relics. Their attempt to retrieve the relic was met with an overwhelming response from the local Grimm population." Velvet spoke from memory in a matter of fact speech as possible, delivering the information she was giving with as much clarity as she could. "As we are all well aware the Grimm population of Salem's territory is staggering, as well as being home to some terrifying breeds. Suffice it to say both Maidens were forced to retreat and report on their discovery rather than risk fatal injury and transference of their Maiden power's to potentially less cooperative recipients."

"What do you mean less cooperative recipients? I mean maybe the Summer Maiden but it's obvious where the Spring Maiden would end up." Coco paused for a moment, filled with entirely to much silence. "Um, that is to say, I don't think either Maiden should risk their lives that is."

Velvet smiled at her former team leader, the moment's pause was broken when she began speaking again. "After their report was received Qrow Branwen was sent to investigate the possibility of recovering the Relic through a straightforward attack. His report confirmed a sufficiently large attack force could recover the relic but also would require outside assistance from Huntsman without prior knowledge on the importance of the Relics. His report then led to the formation of a stealth-based recovery team, this team."

The three occupants of the Bullhead without any knowledge of what they were being deployed to do all collectively groaned in frustration, not a single one eager to be embroiled in the affairs of Maiden or Relics again, yet each also understood the importance of recovering the powerful items.

"Yeah, I understand how you feel." Velvet said sympathetically. "Now that we are underway and you understand the importance of this task I suggest you inform anyone you need to of your absence. I'll complete the briefing when you are done." Velvet looked apologetically towards Ren, the Huntsman only just learning he was going to be away from his home and family much longer than he expected to be.

The three others all glanced at each other momentarily before deciding what they should do next, Jaune and Coco both spent more than a few moments looking halfways at Ren wondering what exactly the quiet man was thinking.

Ren on the other hand simply sat quietly his eyes closed and reflecting in thought, considering what he need tell his wife, that moments reflection ended all to soon as he produced his scroll and after a few short moments he was in a quiet personal conversation with his wife, or at least his side was personal, everyone aboard the Bullhead could hear every one of Nora's responses, cheering them on and loudly telling them to kick a Grimm for her since she couldn't be there herself to do it herself.

Jaune smiled happily to himself, glad that Nora was still Nora, easily cutting through the seriousness of the situation and putting what was likely a very anxious and uncertain Ren back into a more regular state of mind. Still Jaune reminded himself of how dangerous Salem's territory was and still is, the absence of their leader had little effect on the Grimm that inhabited the rest of the land.

"So, are you going to call Yang and apologize or do I need to kick you in the head?"

Jaune nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Coco's voice, it was playful and probing but he also detected underneath that also accusing. "Apologize for what?" Jaune said on reflex more than anything, he winced slightly as he saw Coco's eyes narrow slightly, his response likely sounding more defensive that confused.

"That's a good question, I don't know what you should apologize for either but Yang wasn't herself last night and I'm guessing you're to blame." Coco said smoothly, her voice laced with intrigue.

"What do you mean she wasn't herself?" Jaune was suddenly worried for his fellow blonde thinking that she might be in some sort of trouble of bad situation.

"She wasn't interested last night."

"What do you mean interested?"

Coco raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Are you serious?"

"Serious about what?"

Coco looked Jaune in the eye's for a long moment, long enough to Jaune to feel awkward. "Hmm, so that's the case... Alright, nevermind what I said before, you're off the hook for now."

"Wait, what does that mean?" Jaune's question was left unanswered as Coco choose not to reply, instead, she moved towards the rear of the small Bullhead and laid herself out across several seats, clearly intending to sleep. "Ugh, fine be weird and mysterious." Jaune shook his head in mild annoyance over the weird conversation before he pulled out his scroll, his mind deciding who to call first, his readily deciding on the obvious answer, and in a moment his White Haired Angel appeared on his screen.

* * *

 **Thursday Late Afternoon, Vale, Blake.  
**

* * *

Blake had had a week, she was both exhausted and frustrated. The exhaustion was easily explained away, she was still not even being close to the level of physical fitness a Huntsman is expected to have, she was physically fit and in a short situation she could more than hold her own but in a drawn-out situation, she could feel the fatigue pile up quickly.

The fatigue piling up hadn't been a problem the previous week, between Jaune and Yang working together the two stamina powerhouses took on the brunt of the work, she, of course, did her part, or so she thought.

With Jaune's absence this week she had to be doing far more than she was likely ready for, her tired limbs readily agreeing with her mind. Her limbs feeling weakness tried there best to support her entire way home, but despite her best effort she was forced to stop and rest, a bus stop bench was her current home, the same bench she had used every day this week. Yang had checked the route for her and even sorted out her fare, going so far as to get a ticket set up for the entire month, Blake remembered trying to protest saying she wouldn't need it but after the following day and the next and then again today she understood Yang's insistence.

Her frustration was also in a sense easily explained, Yang had been tiptoeing around a subject all week, a subject that the blonde wasn't being exactly subtle about either.

It hadn't even taken a minute after their meeting on Monday for Yang to begin hinting at her knowing some secret, that secret became more obvious as the morning wore on and they left for their mission.

Yang in under the belief that she was in a physical relationship, of course she denied it since she knew she wasn't.

Denying it had no effect on Yang though, she doubled down and kept up with the teasing. Blake had chosen to ignore Yang, but ignoring the blonde when she didn't want to be ignored was a hard task, impossible really.

She had lasted until today, a pathetic three days before the slow teasing finally wore her down and she slipped. She had simply asked how Yang came by this knowledge, what proof.

Yang had no physical proof but she had a very clear picture she painted with her words. Some way or somehow Yang had seen her leaving Jaune's apartment the night before he left for his current mission.

The image Yang painted was a perfect picture of her sneaking out of Jaune's apartment. Of course Yang didn't know Jaune wasn't home and that she was actually breaking in to steal something as insignificant as sandwiches.

Instinctively her stomach rumbled at the thought of Jaune's cooking, her mind accustomed to the new action paid it no heed, her mind and body were at odd's whenever she thought of the Blonde Swordsmans cooking, her body ready to do anything to be in possession of it while her mind was now vehemently against her actions, her current dilemma with Yang only reinforcing her minds stance.

She embarrassingly denied the whole instance, claiming it must have been someone else leaving Jaune's apartment that Yang saw.

Yang had given her a long look after that, Blake dreaded every second of that gaze, and then Yang was, for the lack of a better word, done. She hadn't mentioned anything further and every her teasing stopped all at once.

Any other person would probably have been relieved, she wasn't though, instead, she spent her time with her mind split, half focused on dealing with any Grimm they encounter while the other trying to think of a way to prevent Yang from mentioning anything to Jaune when he inevitably returns.

* * *

 **Thursday Evening, Residence of Ren and Nora.**

* * *

The household was quite, far quieter than Weiss was ever accustomed it to be, she understood why though. The Twins and Sif were all already put to bed, and the two who remained awake sat quietly in the kitchen. A similar scene from the night before, every night beginning Monday actually.

Weiss had chosen to return the documents Ren's courier had delivered that morning herself. At the time she wasn't sure what prompted the shift in her usual procedure but she was glad she did.

She had arrived at Ren and Nora's home to find the residence even more eerily quiet than it was this night, again the children had been put to bed but that typically mattered little for the home, if Nora was awake there was always an energy that flowed through the building, livening and brightening the place. Instead, the house sat quiet and somber. Nora had assured her that nothing was wrong but that was clearly a strong face she was putting on for herself.

She had insisted on staying and eventually the two talked, the topics had ranged from the mundane to the more extravagant, but they never settled on the topic that she knew was the source of Nora's subdued attitude. Not even her attempts on the two following nights garnered her any success, and tonight was feeling like it would be unsuccessful as well.

She was in no rush to push the subject either, as the days went by without even a message from Jaune she gradually began to feel increasingly anxious herself, no longer seeking out Nora to support the mother of three but now seeking solace in her company as she truly began to understand the fear Nora was experiencing.

Every night previous she had kept the conversation happening, simple questions that Nora could answer with a yes or no when she didn't feel like talking or a back and forth conversation that would have no point and would eventually trail of into her asking Nora easy questions again.

Tonight there were no questions, both Women sat opposite each other, knowing without a word spoken what each was thinking. Seconds became longer and longer, a single minute feeling like an eternity.

Weiss couldn't understand how this felt so hard, or how Nora could even endure it, Jaune and her were only beginning to date and she felt her dread in a way she couldn't describe. Fathoming how Nora felt was impossible, Ren's absence with no word must be excruciating.

Weiss raised her head not remembering when she had begun to look at the floor, she had resolved to say something comforting to her friend. Words that would easily sound hollow, however as her eyes found Nora she realized any words would be pointless.

Her friend was slumped low in her chair her eye's and cheeks wet with silent tears, at some point during the long silence Nora had begun to silently cry her frustrations out.

Without a second thought, she gathered up her sleeping friend and carried her to the bedroom. After that she found herself a comfy chair in the living room and a blanket and curled up to sleep herself, hoping she could find the act restful.

* * *

 **A much shorter chapter than usual for this story and one that's devoid of much dialogue.**

 **Jaune and Ren off to help make the world safer, Yang teasing Blake and Blake being embarrassed by being caught even if for the wrong reasons, also now needing to find a way to intercept Yang telling Jaune.**

 **I won't add anything for Weiss and Nora, just that it is something that I have experienced, from the other side, it's hard and it never gets easier.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Friday Morning, Weiss.**

* * *

The morning had been so alien to Weiss. She had been woken by an excited household, Nora woke the twins and began the morning energetically feeding and taking care of the young pairs needs while Sif was paid more than her share of attention.

Gone was the somber attitude that had filled the household the night before, she found herself fully believing that the quiet moment from the evening before had only been her own imagination.

She found herself saying her farewells to the loud household without really having a chance to say anything further to Nora, which the more she thought about it as she traveled further from the home was a blessing as she could not come up with anything to say about the night before.

The shared silence had spoken enough between both of them, sharing a sentiment, one that neither would know how to address if it was tried to be brought into words.

Weiss did not find herself at home as the day wore tirelessly on instead, she found herself at a favorite spot of hers, a quaint little cafe situated right beside a rather large bookstore. Both the Cafe and the Store had rivals in the city with a better menu selection or a greater selection of literature but none had such an ideal setup and it showed with just how much business the two pulled from each other.

A weekday when most of the city would be indoors still working away the cafe was near full as people who purchased a book from the neighboring store, either work-related or leisure were cloistered away inside the cafe. Weiss herself was counted amongst the number as she held a new book herself, a psychology one that dealt with a variety of topics but had a key element across itself to more focus on coping with partners with dangerous careers.

The heavy book that most likely would have put a less serious person to sleep in minutes wholely engrossed Weiss and she found herself fascinated by every new detail, so focused was she that she lost track of the passage of time.

* * *

 **Friday Morning, Blake.**

* * *

Blake had woken to the world with a growl, her stomach insisting that she needed to get her day started.

Her traitorous stomach had to much control over her and she knew it, Jaune's few instants of cooking had robbed her of a great deal of self-control and as much as her mind reprimanded herself even it was not exempt from thinking, in moments of weakness, about the Blonde Knights culinary skills. Skills that others seemed to appreciate but as she decided did not appreciate enough.

' _No, BAD BAD BAD, I will not think like that! Honestly, it is a good thing Jaune has this long mission, I can't imagine how I might act with so little self-control.'_

Another angry reprimand to herself was punctuated with a quiet rumble of disagreement from her stomach.

Rolling from her bed she found herself in her small kitchen shortly staring mindlessly into a cupboard, her thoughts, unfortunately, brought instantly back to food as she did need breakfast. A collection of boxes, containing healthy cereals as well as quick instant meals of different flavors of porage sat before her eyes looking painfully bland and unfilling.

Her refrigerator was equally as disappointing but she conceded to it anyway, pulling out a mixture of items and began to make herself an omelet, a recipe she was rather proud of.

~/~

Half her omelet sat disappointingly on her plate, growing colder by the minute as she stared at it a look of betrayal. The omelet was supposed to be a treat, something she rarely did for herself, only when she felt like spoiling herself and it had always been successful, now though it felt empty and bland, a similarity it shared with everything she had eaten since she had finished off the last of Jaune's sandwiches, the ones she had stolen had been rationed as well as she could manage.

An angry growl was heard through her apartment as the omelet hit the trash can. The anger felt childish but so to was her body seemingly willing to betray her at all costs until she was forced to submit to its desires. Desires that could not be fulfilled even if she did submit because Jaune and his magical cooking were currently not available to her or anyone else aside from the people he was on his mission with.

' _Lucky bastards.'_

The simple betrayal in her thoughts had a groan of frustration escape her lips as she put her head in her hands and simply shook her head.

A knock at her door pulled her attention away from her internal struggle for the moment, pulling the door open she was greeted immediately by the kindly old superintendent that ran the building.

"Ah, Good morning Ms. Belladonna, how are you today?" The old man smiled warmly.

"I'm quite well thank you, what can I do for you this morning."

"Help me? Oh no no no, I'm here to give you some unfortunate news, albeit news you likely already know as I have seen you frequent the company of Mr. Arc. It appears the young man, unfortunately, will not be able to host his weekly meal due to Huntsmen work."

Blake knew this was likely to be the case, the odd's Jaune would return today were slim at best from the few details she understood that were passed along from the Huntsman offices. Neptune could not really tell them much that Yang didn't already know from a short scroll message from Jaune the morning he left. He was contracted directly from Beacon Academy from Headmaster Goodwitch. "Thank you for informing me, I figured that to be the case."

"No worries, now this won't mess with the order any so you will still be next to choose the menu when he does return, I'm actually looking forward to it. Jaune told me of your predilection to seafood and I must say I'm personally looking forward to such an interesting change." The man glanced furtively down the hall both ways before leaning in and speaking quietly. "Too many people here ask for the same thing every time, a man gets bored of such a routine menu I for one am glad to have some new blood in the rotation."

Blake watched as the old man straightened immediately his eyes sending a panicked glance down the hall again, he seemingly appeared afraid that his word would be overheard and condemned, at least until he broke into a broad grin and with a wink to her sauntered off joyfully down the hall. She shook her head at the old man's antics, he clearly enjoyed whatever the role it was he assigned himself.

Closing the door she looked over her apartment before quickly dressing in her customary Huntsmen clothing. Through habit more than any real need Gambol Shroud was on her hip as she left home, intent on adding a few more books to her collection and more importantly filling the empty shelves in her apartment.

Her destination was not the Huntsman offices, even though with Jaune being confirmed away she knew she could easily take a simple job but that would also mean putting herself in close proximity to Yang and for the moment she really didn't desire that company, at least until she could think of a way to deal with that problem.

Wandering through Vale Blake had no real destination in mind, she had the vague plan of collecting a few books but nothing beyond that. The shop she had located before felt terribly far away today so she decided to hunt for something more local, a quick place to stop in, grab a few volumes and retreat home as quickly as possible.

Her plan more firmly in place she found herself inside a large chain store in a relatively short walk. The chain was so large that Menagerie even had one, though it paled in size to the one she found herself inside now.

Even with Menagerie's expanding size with the help of its own Huntsmen academy allowing them to push into the desert somewhat and expand it was still a cramped place to live.

Menagerie's store had been an impressive seven thousand square feet, impressively large all things considered. The store she stood in now was easily twice the size, probably more considering this one had room inside for a small coffee shop.

Her nose wrinkled at the sharp smell of generic coffee blends that filled the entryway where the coffee shop commanded attention, once past the entrance though the smell faded rapidly, vents in the ceiling keeping the smell contained to the singular corner of the massive building.

Soon she found herself in her corner of the store, shelves upon shelves filled with adult-themed literature. The deeper she traveled into the section the more at home she felt, her eyes catching many titles as she passed.

The books that lined the perimeter of the section were a form of barrier of entry, many would read a few titles maybe go as far to read the synopsis on the back before leaving the section behind, their interests lying elsewhere.

If a person did pick up a book from the perimeter and even go as far as to purchase it then they would return, each trip moving deeper and deeper into the section until they eventually reached their limit. Everyone had a clear line of tolerance for what these books offered, where they would change from artistic literature in the reader's mind to clear unadulterated smut.

Blake's limit was about two-thirds of the way in, her few dalliances further in had turned up nothing that had garnered repeated interest, she liked her stories to leave a fair amount to the reader's imagination, with maybe the final chapters going the final way for her.

A day spent lost in the shelves helped Blake to relax, she did not find herself coming up with any perfect solution to her current problem with Yang but for the time being, her concern's about it faded away.

A large hardcover was Blake's reward for a morning spent searching through the shelves, it was the newest installment of her favorite ' _Ninja's in Love Vol, XIV.'_

A quick run through the register followed by a similarly quick walk back home, her excitement about the new book had her moving at a Ruby like pace.

Reaching into the bag she pulled the hardcover almost reverently, letting the bag drop from her hand with a quick thump as she made to hold the hardcover with both hands.

 _'Wait, thump?'_

Blake looked at what should have been an empty plastic bag, carelessly discarded onto the floor. While that was what she did see the bag held a clear outline of another book.

Reaching for the bag and pulling out the book she discovered it to be ' _Ninja's in Love Vol, XIV.'_ The book she had purchased, the other book that she held and only now noticed was clearly not said book, was not even similar in shape to the Novel she had bought.

The book was several inches longer and taller, an easy explanation on how she had grabbed it first but it didn't really explain why she had it. She had only picked up the one book. A sudden fear that she had taken the book unintentionally washed over her and before she could think she was back out into the street running almost frantically back to the bookstore, to both return the book and explain that she hadn't meant to take it and wasn't sure how it had made it into her bag in the first place.

Entering back into the giant store Blake was focused immediately on one of several registers, finding an open one she made for it immediately.

"Welcome back Miss, did you forget something you look a little flushed."

The greeting made Blake pause for a moment, barely a second to scan the clerk behind the counters face looking for some form of recognition on her part as to who this person was. "Uh, no no I didn't forget anything I actually walked off with something that didn't belong to me and I'm here to return it." The split second she had given herself to recognize the clerk having failed Blake just dove right into her reason for being here to return the extra book.

"Alright, please pass it over the counter and I will set it aside to be returned to its place."

Sighing in relief Blake slid the large book across the counter to the clerk and turned to leave and forget her little accidental theft.

"Miss, excuse me."

Blake stopped mid-stride and turned, wondering what could be the problem. "Yes, is there a problem?"

"Oh, no problem at all, but if you are returning this I actually would need to credit you."

"I'm sorry, why would you need to credit me I walked off with that by accident?"

"I'm sorry to have to correct you but if you want I can show you our store's copy of the receipt, it has both book's you purchased showing on it." The clerk anticipating the confusion after the short conversation had already begun pulling slips of paper out from beneath the counter and in moments finding the one she needed, turning it and dutifully showing it.

Blake read the receipt, still more than a little confused as it did clearly show that she had indeed purchased two books. Her ' _Ninja's in Love Vol, XIV.'_ and another by the name of ' ** _Bold recipes to excite your_** _ **Taste's** '._

"I'm sorry but I don't remember purchasing that."

The teller smiled "I will admit you did appear very distracted during your purchase but no worries I can have this sorted out in just a moment." The teller sidestepped slightly and began punching away on her computer making the appropriate changes. "Alright, your return of ' _Ninja's in Love Vol, XIV.'_ Will be a total of eighty-five dollars and change would you like the placed back on your card?"

"Um sorry for the confusion again but I'm keeping that book I'm returning the other one."

"Oh, I'm sorry I can sort that out in just a moment." The teller reached behind her and slid the book she had been handed at the start of this transaction back. "If you could I need the other book please."

Blake looked at the copy of ' _Ninja's in Love Vol, XIV.'_ on the counter and at the tellers outstretched hand, waiting expectantly before realizing belatedly as her mind struggled to put the pieces together that she had brought back the wrong book and the book she had intended to return was still in her apartment. "Uh... So I left that book at home..." Blake looked at the ground fully embarrassed over the entire situation.

"No worries, as long as can provide proof of purchase you can return the other book anytime in the next week." The teller smiled pleasantly explaining that the issue was not really that big an issue, even pointing to a sign near the end of the row of till's explaining the return policy the store had in much greater detail.

After a quick thank you to the teller Blake left the bookstore, not one to commonly be so embarrassed but currently, she felt redder in the face than any time she could remember.

Retreating home she closed the door to her apartment with a quiet click, letting the silence afterward calm her and bleed away some of her embarrassment in the moments of silence before ultimately looking with no small amount of annoyance at the book, no, cookbook, that has caused her the embarrassment to begin with.

"' ** _Bold recipes to excite your_** _ **Taste's** '!" _Reading the title out loud made it sound comical to her but that was only her mind believing it to be comical, her stomach rumbled silently for a moment, it once again taking action upon itself.

"Rumble away all you want you traitor!" She tossed the cookbook onto the kitchen counter, as she grabbed her intentional purchase and flopped down onto her couch, happily opening the book and with a moment's anticipation began to read.

Read she did, flipping through pages at a remarkable pace initially, blazing through the first and second chapters in what seemed like moments to her imagination as the author painted vivid and wonderful pictures for her. The third chapter brought a halt to the fast pace though, her distraction that was this book that kept away other thoughts was halted as the newest chapter included food, not anything new for the series. The food, the way it tasted, the aroma, was described so perfectly and with such care and detail that even before her body could betray her with an anticipated rumble she snapped the book shut and dropped it angrily to the floor.

Her apartment was deathly quiet, Blake waited with barely concealed angry in anticipation of her bodies betrayal of itself. Minutes passed and for a time her anger grew as the expected reaction remained elusive but gradually the anger tapered away, and once again she felt embarrassed, though this time it was because she was so obviously not in control and as much as her mind sought to prove that it was, even it knew at least on some level that this, whatever it was, she had with food and more specifically Jaune's that it was not going to go away.

With a sigh of admittance, she picked up her novel from the floor, carefully marked the page she was on before placing it on her coffee table. Once done her eyes looked toward the kitchen counter and the cookbook that resided there.

"I suppose I probably won't be returning that will I?"

Blakes only response was a small rumble.

"Fine let's see what I can do about dealing with this problem!" Blake rolled her eyes at her weird situation with her traitorous body as she flipped open the cookbook and began looking over recipes.

* * *

 **Friday Evening, Jaune.**

* * *

The day had been another grueling ordeal of dodging Grimm, allowing Ren any amount of rest he could get before, inevitably, the attraction that was the Relic would force Ren to exert his Semblance again and allow their quartet to escape once again.

The Bullhead Beacon had provided had barely lasted a day into their mission, knocked out of the sky by a trio of very large and aggressive Nevermore. The Grimm had also fallen but the crashed Bullhead was entirely wrecked and had to be abandoned.

Still a lack of transport didn't end their mission and as things stood Jaune found himself relatively pleased with the outcome all things considered.

They had recovered the Relic, Jinn's Lamp, escaped from a veritable horde of the weirdest collection of Grimm he has ever seen in one place, and best of all they had done so completely unharmed.

Though if you looked at Coco and Ren he guessed unharmed was subjective to what kind of harm they might be subjected too. Jaune at least felt a great deal of sympathy towards Ren and his need to constantly be using his Semblance to suppress the effects of the Lamp drawing Grimm towards it. While Coco, Velvet and himself were as well rested as they could be all things considered with short nights that had them rotating watches Ren whenever he was completely forced to rest he rarely got more than a couple hours. Sleep means he can't focus on his Semblance, his Semblance off means any Grimm in the vicinity can then sense the Lamp.

It was a painful cycle and the bags around Ren's eyes spoke volumes so yes for Ren Jaune felt sympathy, also the same respect he always had for the man on how he stoically shouldered the burden.

His sympathy did not extend to Coco, she was clearly a person that enjoyed her sleep.

She operates solely on coffee he decided and being devoid of it for an entire week has made her irritable in the wee hours of the morning and late evening and when it's her turn for watch and really all the other times as well.

Jaune knew she was trying to hide her bad temper, she might even think she's being very successful but the other three even the very focused and invested in his task Ren know just how poorly Coco was hiding her caffeine withdrawal.

Right now though the loss of caffeine was not Coco's concern, right now her only concern, as well as Velvets, was getting as much sleep as possible.

Jaune sat on watch, keeping a close eye toward the entrance of the cave Velvet had found and decided as a good of a place as any to try and get some rest. It had been almost twelve hours since their last sighting of the Grimm swarm that followed in their wake, homing in whenever the Relic was left unshrouded by Ren.

Ren would get his turn sleeping soon, another hour and Jaune's shift at watch would end, he would wake up Velvet, and he would go to sleep but it was also the signal for Ren to try and get some rest he had been up and active onto top of maintaining his Semblance for a near solid twenty-four hours.

Settling beside a small collapsable mech-shift fire kit Jaune fed it a few sticks to keep the heat coming from it at a level temperature, trying his best to keep the cave comfortable for everyone. The fire eagerly caught the additions and popped happily with the new fresh fuel.

Settling himself down on the floor Jaune took the time to strip off his gear and miscellaneous equipment, intent of giving what needed it most some quick repairs if possible and to catalog what he had left to work with.

"As fastidious as ever."

Jaune looked toward where Ren sat crosslegged only a few feet away, he had left his friend to his task not wanting to interrupt him by accident and break his concentration, even if it might be a momentary lapse it could shave away on the time they had to rest, every minute being crucial to the overtaxed Ren.

"What can I say, once it becomes a habit can you even really call it being fastidious?" "Jaune replied softly.

"Hmm, I suppose that would be true in a sense," Ren replied quietly as well his attention never fully wavering from the Lamp resting in his lap, one hand resting firmly wrapped around the handle.

"How are you holding up Ren?"

"Honestly?" Ren said one eye peeking open and reflecting a small bit of light enough that it reflected for a moment. "I'm exhausted, I'm starving for something better to eat than field rations and I could really use a shower." Ren said lightheartedly, as drained both physically and mentally as he was he as always, calm and focused.

"Couldn't we all on that last point." Jaune could guess just how awful the four felt. Layers of sweat and grime covered every inch of them, running from a horde of Grimm was not clean work. "As for something a little better than field rations I might be able to help you with that." He left his collection of equipment laid out on the floor.

Turning to dig through his bag, well no his per se, as with most of their equipment it was lost or destroyed with the Bullhead. His collection of recovered items found their home in a spare duffle bag, it didn't hold much, most times spare equipment for Huntsman is more ammo or replacement part for exposed Mechashift components that commonly receive damage. Jaune barely had any of the first to worry about, his firearm always being a last resort to him he usually only had what it was loaded with and a could of spare reloads, the capacity of the gun mean that totaled he had maybe two dozen rounds at any time, as for mechashift parts he had none of those.

His bag was filled with miscellaneous equipment like the small portable campfire kit when it wasn't being used. It also held most of the rations that had been saved though everyone carried some just in case he was lost or the bag had to be abandoned.

Rifling through the bag for a minute he pulled out one of several canteens full of fresh water that had been filled from a stream earlier that very day, the water had been boiled and for good measure had purification tablets added to make safe to drink shortly after they had made camp.

Going to work as quickly and quietly as he could Jaune tore apart several field ration pouches, robbing from them the ingredients that he needed before dutifully wrapping up what was left behind.

"I know I'm still using the field rations." Speaking quietly he answered Ren's unasked question.

"I never said a thing." Ren said knowingly, Jaune needed to say these things so he would let him, it was just Jaune's way of doing things.

Jaune invested himself in the task, going about it as quietly and efficiently as he could, to not wake the two sleeping Women but also to be able to keep his ears open for any out of the norm noises, as well as frequent looks toward the entrance.

A few minutes pass as Jaune worked away on his task, the small pot that sat above the fire simmered quietly, heating up the mixture of ingredients Jaune had added to it. While the pot simmered away Jaune continued working on the other items, a pair of can's had been placed dangerously close to the fire also heating up alongside the simmering pot.

Occasionally Jaune would check all three items, poking the cans with a camp knife, turning them as necessary, the pot though was repeatedly picked up to and swirled gently by hand. This process would repeat itself many times over the long final hour of his watch, the process being slow and meticulous.

Ren couldn't let himself get to distracted by Jaune's actions lest his concentration on his Semblance would stip but Jaune didn't make that easy for him, each careful action during his cooking was worth watching. He wasn't sure what the recipe Jaune was preparing was but most curiously it was producing no aroma from the pot, a perplexing development of that he was certain because cooking always created some form of smell and the absence was a curiosity.

Whatever was in the pot took care to prepare and with that care time, so long that Jaune had to take a moment from his careful ministrations to the pot to gently shake Velvet, rousing her to take her turn at watch even if Jaune knew it might still be a bit longer for him to finish his task.

"Mhmm."

A soft groan of discomfort was the only immediate response he received from his gentle prod be he knew it would be enough and Velvet would be up in moments. He returned immediately to his small kitchen and with a quick check of the pot smiled in satisfaction, the mixture he had been preparing had finally become thick and coagulated meaning it was time to add the two small tins of meat that had been cooking to the pot.

A hand wrapped in aura, as well as a spare shirt, quickly deposited the meat into the larger pot and a spoon quickly followed vigorously stirring the mixture together, the fast, violent stirring immediately allowed the hidden flavour that was trapped inside the pot to escape and the warm buttery aroma filled the cave.

"What on earth is that smell?" Velvet asked as she emerged from her makeshift sleeping bag, her eyes staring intoxicatingly at the pot the aroma now flowed from.

"I would also like the know that as well?" Coco's voice asked from the darkness as well, she appeared more awake that she had since she had run out fo coffee, the aroma had immediately coaxed her from her sleep.

"What your smelling is Ren's," Jaune said with a smile, that turned into a yawn. "Take it up with him if you want some," Jaune said sleepily, already settling down away from the pot on top of one of the makeshift beds. As he began to lay down in a very offhand manner like he nearly forgot he lightly tossed a package toward Ren. "Scoop it out with those." Jaune mumbled as he drifted off in moments, years of experience allowing him to fall asleep instantly now that he was confident in his safety to do so.

Ren looked at the package that had landed next to his crossed legs, the wrapper simply describing what was inside to be a hard trisket like cracker, bland and boring, with only the lightest flavoring of salt, something that would fill a stomach but little else. He looked at the package, then towards the pot and finally with a look of betrayal towards Jaune for leaving him in the situation as he could clearly see the want in the expressions of both Velvet and Coco, it was painfully visible to him because his own mouth watered as well.

* * *

 **Saturday Afternoon, Ruby.**

* * *

Ruby had an extraordinary amount of time to do whatever she wanted during her slow ocean cruise.

At first, all the simple relaxing downtime had been amazing, no one micromanaging her schedule, rushing her here and there and everywhere, somehow managing to make it to all of her many appointments, to many that she had to be briefed, usually en route, moments beforehand.

The cruise had begun with her waking up when she wanted too, doing what she felt like, and generally not having a realistic care in the world.

Sleeping in was a mythical dream she had forgotten about that she felt like needed to make up for lost time on. The thought of being asleep while the world around her was alive and active lasted two entire days, the first she had made it nearly to noon before gracing the day with her presence, the second day she had made it only to a bit after nine, and every day that followed she had been up at her usual time of around seven.

Seven in the morning was once a hated number that she felt didn't need to exist but after a couple days of sleeping in messing with her finely honed schedule, she had decided seven wasn't that bad of a number after all.

Two days and she decided, sleeping in, was just not for her.

Two days in and she had also decided that maybe proper diet and exercise were kind of her thing too. Bingeing on the cruise's twenty-four hour smorg while lounging lazily alongside the pool had made her feel gross and lethargic.

The poor sleep probably hadn't helped either she admitted after the fact as well.

Two entire days of being a good for nothing, do nothing, and Ruby had had enough, every day following had found her sleeping properly, eating healthy, and after a little exploration of the ship a routine workout.

She felt like she let her younger self down, finally free to do what she pleases and within a handful of days, she was back to essentially her same old routine, excluding of course the copious amount of travel and meetings.

Sorting out her own little issues had kept her occupied while they were present but once they were solved Ruby discovered something she wasn't exactly prepared for.

Cruises were a slow and boring way to travel, for a person who is known famously for speed.

She could not fathom how anyone found this relaxing, well actually she could, everyone else aboard the ship was here to relax, the destination for them was not Vale, Vale was the end of their relaxing excursion and meant they would have to return to their lives, they probably already felt now that they are past the halfway point of the cruise that the ship and the days were both going too fast.

Bored and restless Ruby found herself thinking about her plan's going forward.

Initially, her plan was simply stop being a celebrity, something that she honestly doubted would ever truly be achieved that way she hoped it would.

Her attire massively altered her weapon stowed away safely out of sight, her hidden hair now displayed to the world and still, she was noticing the stares.

Stares had become a common thing in her life, when she was younger she watched as people stared at her sister Yang and as time went on after joining Beacon those stares came to encompass her entire team, people having preferences for Weiss and Blake as well.

Those were stares of lust or desire and she was familiar with them from both a perspective of an outsider looking in and due to her fame as the object of the gazes themselves.

Another set of stares were the ones when she was in full attire, the world recognizing her as some pinnacle figure, the most triumphant hero of their time, she hated that stare more than the looks of lust, at least those were understood, creepy and gross, but understood. She could not understand why she, above everyone else was treated so much more special, the victory they laud her as a hero was not achieved on her own so the praise and treatment should have never been simply hers either.

The other stares were new, the ones of recognition or at least assumed recognition. No one aboard the cruise had approached her yet but she had noticed more than a few double takes her direction and in some cases blatant staring, the kind of look, that gave a person a thousand yard stare, like their eyes and brain were working, taxingly hard trying to put the puzzle together on why she looked so familiar.

Whenever she noticed these stares she promptly left the vicinity, hoping her absence would prevent the gawker's minds from finishing the puzzle.

The glances had become irritatingly more common as the ship sailed and Ruby found herself spending less and less time mingling with the other passengers and instead, remaining secluded in her own room outside of the needs for food and the gym facility.

Hiding from looks and stray gazes Ruby's thoughts could not help shift tracks. Plans on what to do when she returned to Vale and her friends began in her mind and falter out after several attempts as her mind kept thinking back to looks.

A look of sadness, one recently worn by Oscar/Ozpin.

She didn't regret her decision ending her relationship with Oscar. When his personality had been it's own he had been sweet and kind, while also having the ability to match her optimism if maybe not her enthusiasm.

The Ozpin side had never really bothered her as much as it seemed to bother others. She knew the difference between the two and that was that, and it wasn't like the other part that existed within Oscar ever made himself known while they were together.

Then there was that weird day when she couldn't tell who she was speaking too. It was Oscar and also Ozpin, both at once but not the two fighting to be the one in control but instead both in unison and it had been instantly unnerving to her. Their relationship hadn't lasted past that day, even if it wasn't put into word for many more weeks.

Oscar to his credit, likely due heavily to portions of Ozpins personality took the entire situation in stride and aside from their parting recently had managed to never show any real effects of their split.

She did not like that look of sadness because it was not something she could resolve, at least not without sacrificing something she knew she was incapable of doing, so instead, she hoped to never to have the experience that expression again, at least not directed towards herself.

Another look flashed briefly through her mind for a moment, one that brought a smile to her lips as she thought out old memories.

Respect and compassion, a goofy smile and an untameable mess of blonde hair.

The mere thought of this look, the same one the loveable idiot would give to anyone had her willing the ship to move faster.

As the day wore on into the night and she retired to her bed Ruby though how amazing it would be to be close to Jaune once again.


End file.
